Project Myth
by Mentally Impaired
Summary: The SpartanII project wasn't the only one created to help the human race. As Earth comes under attack, another of ONI's secret projects is released upon the Covenant. After the Fall of Reach and Halo. Before Halo 2, just read other two books.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer- I do not own Halo. It is in fact owned by Bungie and Microsoft.

I just read The Flood and First Strike, after I posted the original version of this so I'm changing it to incorporate information from that.

This story will be following several characters. Four of these characters,a ship Captain, a Marine Major, an ODST Lance Corporal anda Myth soldier will be showing up throughout the story frequently. Others will be added in every now and then to either add to the plot or explain some things.

Prologue

With the fall of the UNSC headquarters at Reach and the loss of most of the Spartans, things looked bleak for the human race. Almost a half of the UNSC fleet had been destroyed at the Fall of Reach and another quarter had been damaged. Several ships, like the _Pillar of Autumn, _had jumped into slipspace during the battle. Covenant ships followed these jumping ships and no word had returned from all of them since then.

However, unlike all the other ships, the _Pillar of Autumn_ had survivors. A Spartan and a Marine, traveling in a battered UNSC destroyer. And they weren't alone, three other Spartans had survived the Fall of Reach and the attack on the Covenant flag ship. Master Chief had returned with tales of a super weapon that could destroy all of humanity as well as the Covenant, that the Covenant were trying to activate because they thought it would lead them on some Great Journey. He told of the Flood and their capabilities and everything else he saw and learned while on this weapon, Halo a.k.a Installation 04. He also told the UNSC something worse.

Earth was in danger. The Covenant had somehow learned of its location. And though the remaining Spartans and Vice Admiral Whitcomb and First Lieutenant Haverson slowed down the invasion, it was only a matter of time until the Covenant came. As the home world of humans, it was the most important planet to the human race. It is the UNSC's last bastion of power, since Reach fell, and is heavily protected with dozens of Super MAC orbital platforms, over a hundred heavy cruisers, and many other experimental defense systems. Around eight million ground forces occupied Earth. The UNSC had taken no chances with keeping the secret of Earth safe, though it was only a matter of time before the Covenant discovered Earth's location.

The military base on Mars, known as Chiron was another source of Earth's defense. Chiron was once the main training facility for the Spartans. Constantly docked and ready for battle was a small fleet of ships. The fleet contained eight ships altogether. Four destroyers, the _Napoleon, _the _Aztec, _the _Samurai_, and the _Legionnaire_; two _Mako_-class corvettes, the _Waterloo_ and the _Achilles_; the supercarrier, _Atom_; and a _Halcyon_-class cruiser called the _Touch of Humanity. _The _Touch of Humanity_, like the _Pillar of Autumn_, was pulled from long term storage when the war with the Covenant began. The _Napoleon _and the _Aztec_ had both been recently built several months before the Fall of Reach as the chances of the Covenant discovering Earth grew. They had the improve slipspace technology the Covenant used that made jumps accurate, some of the first in the UNSC navy to have it.

Along with the small fleet of ships and their crews was a garrison of six-thousand ground troops. One thousand-five hundred of those troops were Marines, half of which were fresh recruits. The other half were battle hardened men who fought the Covenant at battles such as the Siege of Paris IV and the battle that was fought in the city Cote d'Azur on the planet Sigma Octanus IV. Four thousand troops were regular Army boys. Only some of the best got into the Marines, the rest were drafted into the Army. The last was a group of the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, who were the best of the Marines. In other words they were some of the best of the best. That isn't to say that the Army boys weren't tough either. The training facilities in Chiron were the toughest any where and all six-thousand were some of the best humans had to offer.

A handful of Super MAC orbital guns are positioned in orbit around Mars. The Super MAC orbital guns were heavier then the Super MAC turrets that were used at Orbital Defense Stations that orbited key UNSC colonies. They also had a range that was almost 200 percent farther. The Super MAC orbital guns was first introduced as a defense for Earth a month ago, having just finish testing. All of the Super MAC orbital guns orbiting Mars could fire upon ships around Earth if the human home world was 115 million kilometers away from Mars or less. Which happened only seven or eight months every two years.

But there was also something else, something only the top personnel of ONI (Office of Naval Intelligence) and SWD (Special Weapons Division) knew about. On the other side of Mars, away from Chiron, was another training facility.

Seven years ago Major Christian Wolfe had approached the ONI with an idea to help them win the war. However with Dr. Halsey's Spartan-II project and Colonel James Ackerson high-profile projects, the UNSC had no funding to spare. Luckily Major Wolfe had a sister who married the big shot CEO to Moray Inc. Moray Inc. was responsible for the Moray Space Mines used by the Longsword Interceptors. Getting funding from his billionaire brother-in-law, Major Wolfe got the approval to start his project from the ONI, who were always eager to create anything that could turn the battle against the Covenant.

Project Myth, the code name for Major Wolfe's project, started with a battle in the year 2546. The supercarrier was the mightiest ship the UNSC had ever built. One of them, the _Trafalgar_ had been destroyed at Reach, but not before giving the Covenant hell and destroying half dozen Covenant cruisers. The _Atom _was no exception to this. Under the command of First Lieutenant William Anderson the _Atom_ had engaged two Covenant CPV-class destroyers in combat. After a severe battle one of the destroyers had been obliterated, and the second one damaged so severe that it was split in half. The front half of the ship self-destructed, like some Covenant ships did after they lost a battle. However, since the second half was detached it wasn't included in this explosion.

Marines and Technicians were sent on board the back half to gather whatever technology they could.. Some Covenant soldiers were still alive and tried putting up a fight but they were crushed easily by the Marines. After several hours the Marines and Technicians returned to the _Atom_, Pelicans loaded with Covenant technology.

When the _Atom_ returned to Chiron the technology was immediately gathered and shuffled away by ONI personnel. No one questioned this because that was the norm whenever Covenant tech was captured. However instead of leaving in a star ship the technology left on a Pelican to the other side of the planet. There top scientist and researchers took apart the Covenant's superior technology and studied it as intently as they could.

Two years later, thirty of the top ODST, all from the legendary Helljumpers Unit, were secretly shuffled to the facility. Four years later Reach fell and Earth was in danger of being discovered. And a month after that the Master Chief returned from Halo and Earth had been found.


	2. Ten Days To Early

Chapter 1 Ten Days To Early

"Report Ensign Leery" grey-haired Captain Lewis snapped, walking on to the bridge.

"Transmission from Earth sir" Ensign Leery, the communications expert on board, replied.

"Put it on screen" Captain Lewis sat down in his chair as Fleet Admiral Miller appeared on the screen.

"Listen up gents and ladies. We have reports of five hundred Covenant ships moving towards Earth. We estimate that they'll be exiting slipspace midway between Earth and Mars in two weeks time. All available ships are to report to either the Ra docking station on the moon or the Chiron docking station on Mars. You'll be giving your defensive positions then. Fleet Admiral Miller out" The screen went blank again.

"Five hundred" one of the bridge lackeys whispered in awe. That was a little more then double the number that attacked Reach. Reach had over a hundred UNSC ships and twenty Mark V Orbital MAC satellites defending it. Earth had about three hundred ships docked around it and thirty Super MAC orbital platforms. Judging from the data he was receiving, fifty other ships were en route.

Not to mention the eight ships on Mars, the Captain's own ship, the _Aztec, _one of them. And the luck of the situation was that in one weeks time Mars and Earth would be one hundred and fifteen meters apart, and getting closer every day. This meant that the fifteen Super MAC orbital guns would be able to blast away at Covenant ships millions of miles away. Of course when first built there was always a chance the guns could miss its targets and hit UNSC ships, or worse, Earth. However, using stolen Covenant technology they developed there own type of tracking device. Like the plasma torpedoes of Covenant ships that followed UNSC ships, the rounds from the Super MAC orbital guns would lock on to the closest plasma ran ship. Unfortunately the gun could fire only one shot every thirty minutes. Such was the price of power and range.

"Plato!" The ships AI, a "man" with olives branches behind his ears, a toga around his body and sandals upon his feet, appeared in the bridges holotank.

"Yes captain"

"I want a full system scan. Everything on this ship has to be working to perfection and if it isn't, make it"

"Yes Captain" The AI disappeared from the Holotank, going off to do its job.

Another face appeared on the screen, this time it was Vice Admiral William Anderson, commander of the _Atom_, and the leader of the Chiron military base and fleet.

"Captain Lewis, Lieutenant General Moretti and I have talked and we both agree that the ships need defenders incase of enemy boarding. Therefor I'm assigning 550 Army, 150 Marine and 50 ODST ground infantry to your ship. They'll arrive in two days and will be bringing there own supplies so you don't have to worry about it. Make sure weapons are in easy reach of your crew. There was some boarding action during the battle at Reach and I don't want the ships to be unprepared this time"

"Yes sir. I'll alert the rest of the crew of the new arrivals sir"

Major Sasha Ivanova frowned at the two ODST soldiers arm wrestling each other. While great at their job, many ODST soldiers were cocky and reckless, and she wasn't fond of them at all. Though they had one of the toughest jobs, she saw no reason why they should act like they were better then the regular Marines, or even the poor Army boys. After all, everyone of them, not just the ODST, risked their lives for the survival of the human race.

However, she couldn't dwell on these thoughts. The Orbital Drop Shock Troopers were the UNSC best infantry units and all of the higher ups favored them more then any other unit. Besides she had to get to a meeting. All Army and Marine officers had been called to an emergency meeting in the Chiron Conference Room.

She entered the dark wooden room and saw that she was not the last one to arrive. Five, six including herself, of the Chiron's eleven officers not in the navy had arrived. She saluted the highest in command, Lieutenant General Anthony Moretti, and sat down in one of the available seats.

Lieutenant General Anthony Moretti was a fifty-one year old Harvest-ian. He had just arrived at Reach to start his military training when news of Harvest being glassed reached military ears. He had olive-skin with peppered hair and cold hazel eyes. He worked his way up in the ranks fighting the Covenant as a marine and when it became clear he was getting on in years, he was assigned to the Chiron training facility to keep the soldiers there in shape.

On either side of the Lieutenant General was a colonel, one from the Army, the other from the Marines. Colonel James Reilly of the ODST was a brown haired Earth-boy born and raised in New York, United States. He was generally a good natured guy at the age of forty, but he put up with zero bull shit in training and combat. Colonel Miranda Cole of the Army, came from Troy. Her black hair was cut so only a quarter of an inch laid on her head. She was tall and muscular and many men in the facility feared her, because she could kicked all of there ass', even at the age of forty-three.

Lieutenant Colonel James Newton of the Army was a bald, black man with warm brown eyes. He was a survivor of Draco III. He was a native there, and was a Sargent in the Army. After the Covenant had overwhelmed him and his men, the survivors had hidden in the forest. When they saw the surviving colonist being herded and slaughtered, they escaped the planet in a Pelican. James was only thirty-three years old.

Sasha was next in command. She was a Major in the Marines and a proud Earth-born Russian. Her father was an ONI spook and was able to get her the position of Corporal, however she rose to the rank of Major on her own. She had black hair that barely swept pass her ears. Her left cheek was ugly, scarred and red; a result of a plasma bolt that burnt threw a gas mask she wore. She got that scar seven years ago, back when she was a Corporal and only twenty-one years old.

Next came Army Captain Siad Habash, a thirty-year old Charybdis IX colonist with thick black hair and a scraggly beard. He had sharp and intense brown eyes that could blaze with anger so fierce, even ODST's knew not to piss him off.

"Second Lieutenant Dawson and First Lieutenant King of the Marines, and Second Lieutenant Borowski and First Lieutenant Morgan of the Army will not be here for the meeting. They are busy making preparations." Lieutenant General Moretti explained. "Since everyone else is here we can get this meeting going.

"Intelligence shows that a Covenant fleet of five hundred warships is on its way to Earth. It seems Vice Admiral Whitcomb's attack on the original Covenant fleet only delayed them a couple of months. I'm assigning each of you a group of men, Army and Marine, to command on each one of the ships.

"Colonel Reilly, you'll be given command of one thousand troops aboard the _Atom_. Colonel Coles, I'm giving you nine hundred troops and the ship _Touch of Humanity_ to defend. Lieutenant Colonel Newton you'll be given command of seven-hundred and fifty men aboard the _Napoleon_. Major Ivanova you'll be aboard the _Aztec_ with seven-hundred and fifty men. Captain Habash you'll be given command of the seven-hundred and fifty men aboard the _Legionnaire_. First Lieutenant King has be given command of seven-hundred and fifty men on the _Samurai_. The _Waterloo_ is going to be under the command of First Lieutenant Morgan and the _Achilles_ under the command of Second Lieutenant Dawson; each of them will be given four hundred and fifty men. Finally, I, along with Second Lieutenant Borowski will get two hundred men and stay upon Chiron to defend it, incase the Covenant drop some troops to get to the Super MAC orbital guns' generators.

"Any questions? No? Good. You'll be leaving in two days to go to your ships. Dismissed." They all stood up and saluted the Lieutenant General before leaving the room.

**Four Days Later**

Major Ivanova walked slowly through the barracks of the _Aztec_. The Marines and the Army men tended to stay away from each other. This was understandable, though disheartening.

There was tension between the Marines and the Army. The Army was stationary, each planet provided its on Army, under UNSC leadership, that dealt with problems on the planet. Sometimes soldiers would be transferred from one planet to another. The Marines, traveled with the Navy and dealt with problems deemed to big for the Army to handle. When the planets came under ground attack from the Covenant, the Army was the first line of defense, already on the planet and ready to defend it. The Marines got their later, when the Navy got wind of the situation and sent some ships to try to handle the situation. At least that was the original way of doing things. Now Army members, since there were so few planets for them to be stationed on, traveled with the Marines and Navy as well.

She walked at the edge of the room, trying to stay out of the sight of the soldiers. She didn't like being saluted and tried to avoid it whenever possible. Just as she was about to reach her destination, a set of blast doors, she was spotted.

"Officer on deck!" One of the Marines shouted. All the soldiers jumped to attention, their hands flying to their heads in a salute. Some of them still didn't even know where she was. The Marine that shouted was one of the Marines from her company, and knew of her dislike of being saluted. He did that on purpose.

"At ease soldiers, I was just passing through" she called. The group of Marines and Army boys relaxed in their stances and most went back to doing whatever it is they were doing before she was spotted. She continued to the blast door, this time not creeping around the edges of the room.

The room on the other side of the blast doors was the armory. It was packed with MA5B Assault Rifles, BR55 Battle Rifles, M7/caseless Sub-Machine Guns, M6D HE Pistols, M6C Magnum Pistols, M90 Shotguns, M19 SSM Rocket Launchers and SRCS99C Sniper Rifles. Thousands of extra magazines littered the floor, lockers and racks. Hundreds of frag grenades were stored on shelves. One corner of the room was the designated "Demolition Zone." About a thousand pounds of explosives and mines were stacked in that area.

She came to the room to get some ammo for the M6D HE Pistol she kept at her side at all times. There were several stashes of weapons throughout the ship, in places like the mess hall, docking bay, engine room or any other large room in the ship. None of them packed any M6D HE pistols, or any ammo for it. It wasn't the standard pistol anymore, the Magnum was lighter, faster to produce and cost a lot less. However, they sacrificed the power a HE Pistol packed.

She picked up some BR55 Battle Rifle ammo as well. One of them was kept in her office, under her desk and easy to reach.

She walked back out of the armory and through the barracks.

"Officer on..." the Marine was cut off from his shout.

"Shut up soldier. I just passed by here two minutes ago and had to deal with your damn saluting. I'm not doing it again" With that she continued to walk out of the barracks, ignoring the dumbfounded looks on those soldiers who were never under her command before.

She was halfway to her office when the alarms started blaring.

Lance Corporal Christopher Benedetto cursed loudly as the alarm started to go off. You try getting two hours of sleep and something always has to fuck you over. He swung his legs out to the side of the bed and rose. Various Marines and Army boys were running around, getting dressed and gathering there guns. The ODSTs moved at a slower pace. The ODSTs were trained to keep their guns in close proximity at all times so they didn't have to go chasing after them.

Christopher put on his multi-grey colored camouflaged suit, attached the black armor and buckled his shot belt. He strapped on his shoulder pistol holster and his thigh pistol holster, both held the standard M6C Magnum Pistol.

"All UNSC Marine and Army personnel report to the debriefing room immediately" A loud voice wailed over the speakers.

Benedetto slammed his helmet down on his head and grabbed the MA5B Assault Rifle that leaned against the edge of his bed. His top bunk buddy, Michael Cimino, jumped down from his bed fully dressed.

"I knew sleeping in my armor was a good idea" Michael stated, turning around to grab the MA5B Assault Rifle under his pillow.

"Why would you sleep with that thing under your damn pillow?" Christopher asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Why wouldn't you?" Michael returned. Michael, or Mikey, as he was sometimes called, was average height of five foot ten inches with reddish-brown hair in a crew cut. He had an angluar face with mischievous hazel eyes. Like all ODSTs he was packed with hard, lean muscle.

Christopher had dark brown hair that was a half an inch longer then the Marine maximum length of three inches. He had calm brown eyes that had a soothing effect on members of his fireteam. His face was boyish looking, yet his body was like that of an Olympic athlete. His muscles weren't bulging but they were lean and rock hard. He was exactly six feet tall and raised on Earth.

So was Mikey actually. Christopher and Mikey had grown up together, joined the Marines together, got transferred to the ODST together and fought battles together. His whole entire life Mikey was there and he took comfort in that fact. They were only twenty-one years of age and had been fighting the Covenant since the age of seventeen.

The standards to join the Army may have been low but the Marines was still high. The Army, you just needed to be in fairly good physical shape and know how to shoot a gun. Joining the Marines meant excellent physical shape, the knowledge of aiming and firing multiple types of guns, the ability to stay and fight the Covenant, and the ability to sacrifice your life if necessary. Joining the ODST meant all of that plus skill in combat and the constant risk of your life.

"Right" Most of the Army boys had ran out of the barracks, with the Marines trotting behind them. The remaining soldiers in the barracks, mostly ODST with a couple of Marines, walked out of the barracks and to the debriefing room.

They arrived last, getting a glare from their commanding officer, a Major Ivanova of the Marines. It was common knowledge among the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers that Major Ivanova didn't revere the ODST like most officers did.

Once the last of the soldiers had settled in their seats, Major Ivanova told them of the situation. "The Covenant fleet is exiting slipspace in three hours. Our estimated time of two weeks has been cut short by ten days. Twenty more ships still have to arrive. Nineteen other ships have been assigned guard of Chiron and its Super MAC orbital guns. We still have three more days before we can fire upon ships right outside Earth's atmosphere but the Covenant are coming in right between us and Earth.

"We'll be staying on this ship to repel any boarders who think they have an invite onto our ship. We'll show them what human race can really do, won't we boys and girls?"

A chorus of 'Hooraa's and 'Hooay's echoed throughout the room before they were all dismissed. The Army boys all rushed out of the room, eager to get ready for battle. The Marines and ODST went at a slower pace.

"Hey Chris, how come Army boys say 'Hooay'?" Mikey asked.

"I don't know. Why?" Chris questioned.

"Because that's what 'Hooraa' sounds like with a dick in your mouth" Mikey answered, cracking up at his own joke. Many of the Marines around them burst out laughing at the joke, while Chris just smiled and shook his head. It wasn't right making fun of the Army, just because they weren't up to the standards of a Marine. After all they sacrificed their lives for the good of humanity too.


	3. Let’s Get This Party, I Mean Battle St

I don't know the working of the military, only what I have read in books and online. Therefor I don't know if Enlisted ranks, such as Lance Corporals and Sergeants, are saluted and have to be addressed with "sir" Therefor I'm saying that Staff Sergeants and above are saluted and addressed by "sir"

I also know another story is also using the same general area I am for the Covenant drop zone. This is due to the fact that number one, I like that person's story and it is where I got my inspiration from. Number two is that, I live in that area so I know it better then I know any other area.

Chapter 2 Let's Get This Party...I Mean Battle Started

Captain Lewis couldn't help but fidget nervously in his seat. The Covenant fleet was arriving any minute now. The two MAC guns of the _Aztec_ were at full power and ready to be shot. All Archer Missile Pods, A through Z, were all armed and ready to be fired. The three nukes on board were all primed and ready to blow.

He looked out in front of him. He could barely see Earth or the fleet and MAC guns protecting it. Although none of that really mattered. Especially when suddenly hundreds of Covenant ships appeared out of nowhere. Cruisers, destroyers, assault carriers, even two flagships. They were all there and ready to destroy Earth. They weren't in range of any ship MAC gun, or Earth's orbital MAC turrets, but they were in range of the Super MAC orbital guns of Mars. All of the Covenant ships were facing towards Earth and the two flagships were in the middle of a scattered formation.

Suddenly several beams of light cut through the darkness of space and flew towards the ships at Earth. A handful of explosions lit up the screen and everyone on the _Aztec_ bridge could only stare on in fear as the Covenant flagships totally destroyed several UNSC ships from nearly fifty million kilometers away.

The fifteen Super MAC orbital guns lit up as they each let out a loud 'whump' The MAC rounds rocketed towards the two flagships. Several of the Covenant destroyers in the back of the formation angled their ships and lurched forward, making a defensive wall behind the flagships. The MAC rounds slammed into them, tearing four of them apart. Another one was punched from starboard to port near the nose of the ship.

The two Flagships as well as a handful of cruisers disappeared from space. "Plato, see if you can track those ships" Captain Lewis yelled.

"I'll try Captain" Plato replied. The remainder of the Covenant fleet started to move forward, moving in to engage the human fleet. The fleet surrounding Earth was arranged in a loose formation, making it harder to hit multiple ships at one time.

Ten minutes went by and Earth's MAC turrets as well as the three hundred and twenty-one ships defending Earth let loose a salvo of MAC rounds. Before the MAC rounds hit, the Covenant ships let loose its own barrage of plasma.

The MAC rounds slammed into the Covenant warships, punching through the hull of dozens of ships. Some Covenant ships spun in the air, some drifted away from formation, their engines dead. Noses were caved in, hulls had huge holes in them.

Many of the UNSC ships tried to maneuver out of the way of the incoming plasma but it was no use. The Titanium-A plating of the ships melted away as plasma boiled holes in them. A UNSC destroyer's reactor core was hit and it exploded, destroying the port side of the ship next to it.

"Sir, the Covenant ships that jumped into slipspace are exiting it in two minutes to our port side" Plato stated. Five of the Super MAC orbital guns fired.

"Vice Admiral Anderson! Save some of those MAC rounds! Covenant destroyers and flagships appearing on our port side" Captain Lewis yelled into the COM channel. "Chief Petty Officer Jones, swing us around to port side. Ensign Williams, get me a firing solution for those MAC rounds, coordinate it with Plato's estimation on where the ships are exiting slipspace. Ensign Leery, make sure the Fleet defending Chiron knows of the situation"

"I got a firing solution" Ensign Williams called.

"Good, fire one of the tactical nukes into that area"

"Firing sir" a quiet hiss echoed in the bridge as the nuke flew towards the Covenants estimated slipspace exit. Many of Mars' other ships were turning around to face the previous port side.

The two Covenant flagships and fifteen Covenant cruisers appeared in front of the _Aztec_. The nuke had just reached the edge of the formation and was still drifting closer to the middle of it.

"Fire the MAC turrets!"

"Firing!" Two dull 'whump's echoed throughout the ship as the two MAC rounds slammed into an enemy cruiser. One destroyed the ships shield and concaved the nose, the other tore through from nose to stern.

The plasma turrets of the Covenant ships glowed red before beams of plasma were released, heading straight towards the _Aztec_. The _Achilles_ came into view in front of the _Aztec_, firing all of its Archer missiles.

"What are you doing Lieutenant? Get your ship out of there! That's an order!" Captain Lewis yelled into the screen. The _Mako_-class corvette was the fastest ship the UNSC had and it would be able to get out of the way of the plasma fire in time.

Most of the plasma splashed against the hull of the _Achilles_, melting its plating. Soon all that was left was several red glowing blobs of metal. The plasma that didn't hit the _Achilles_ scraped against the bottom of the _Aztec_.

"Sir we no longer have levels twenty-six to thirty-two. And a hull breach on levels twenty- four and twenty-five." Plato exclaimed. "I'm venting the atmosphere there now"

"You son of a bitch" The whole crew was teary eyed at the sacrifice the _Achilles _had made for them. "We'll make that sacrifice count. Vice Admiral Anderson, tell the rest of the ships to hold of their MAC rounds. I got a surprise in the Covenant formation. Wait until I blow it sir"

"Understood Captain. I'll wait for your signal" The Vice Admirals voice was tight and a little cold. Captain Lewis just realized he gave an order to a superior offices. If he survived this, he could be in a bad spot. The rest of the UNSC fleet guarding Chiron had moved up beside the _Aztec._

"Sir, we have dozens of pelicans inbound to our ship. It appears the ground forces on the _Achilles_ abandoned the ship before it took the hit." One of the lower-level bridge crew members shouted.

"Warn the docking bay that we're opening up the doors so they can land. Make sure everyone is out of there in five minutes. What's the status on the _Achilles_ Archer Missiles? And where the hell is that nuke?" Captain Lewis snapped.

"Most of the Archer missiles were destroyed by the plasma but a handful did make it through sir. They exploded against the shields of one of the Covenant flagships. And the nuke is in the middle of the Covenant formation, sector zero-one-zero, waiting to be blown sir." Ensign Williams answered. The Covenant turrets glowed red again and the Covenant warships were about to fire.

"Ensign, blow that nuke"

"Sir, yes sir" Ensign William hit a button on his console and a second sun was created as the nuke, which the Covenant had appeared around, blew up in the middle of the ships. The two flagships rocked back and forth as their shields fell. One of the Cruisers was blown apart, its hull torn to pieces. The shields failed on several other ships and small explosions littered the sides of some of them. The four Cruisers at the edge of the formation weren't effected by the explosion and fired their plasma turrets.

A salvo of MAC rounds launched from the twenty-five ships of the UNSC as well as five of the Super MAC orbital guns. Six of the remaining thirteen Covenant cruisers were nothing more then scrap metal after that salvo.

The four plasma blast from the outer Covenant cruisers crashed against two UNSC cruisers. The hulls boiled away as plasma melted through it. The bridge of one of the cruisers had been directly hit, killing any of the ships controls.

"Sir, docking bay has been emptied and the hatch is open. The Pelicans will be inside in three minutes" Plato submitted.

"Good, close the hatch when there all inside" Captain Lewis responded.

"Four Covenant destroyers coming in from Earth. Super MAC orbital guns won't fire for another ten minutes and by then they'll be too close" Chief Petty Officer Jones yelled.

"Don't worry about those destroyers" Vice Admiral Anderson said to all of the ships over the COM. "We'll take care of them" The _Atom_ broke from the twenty-four other ships of Mars fleet and went to engage the four destroyers.

The flagships let loose there small beam of plasma again, cutting the UNSC carrier, _Faith in Man, _and a UNSC destroyer to ribbons. "MAC turrets at full power sir" Ensign Williams said.

"Aim for one of the flagships. They haven't been suffering enough today." Captain Lewis said.

"Aiming for them sir" Williams said.

"Fire Archer pods A through H at the ship as well" the Captain added as an after thought.

"Yes sir" the head of weapons punched several buttons on his counsel. The hiss of the Archer Missiles could barely be heard, as they streaked toward one of the enemy flagships, leaving white trails behind them.

The two MAC turrets fired, the first one slamming into the shield, collapsing it and denting the starboard side. The second one cut through the entire starboard side, leaving a long jagged cut in its right hull. The forty Archer Missiles impacted in the jagged cut, widening and deepening it.

The Covenant cruisers fired again, their blue plasma streaking across space. "Plasma impact in forty second" Plato exclaimed.

"Evasive action. Power up the thrusters on top" Captain Lewis yelled. The _Aztec_ lurched down, the entire bridge crew, rising a foot in the air before being slammed back down into their seats. Captain Lewis fell on his ass and went to get back into his seat, except the whole ship shook. He fell on his ass again, his usually slicked back grey hair, sticking up at odd angles.

"Hull breach, levels one through ten, sections J though T. Both of the MAC turrets are destroyed and Archer Missile pods, I through S have been destroyed. Engines have dropped to forty-three percent." Plato's calm voice broke through the chaos on the bridge. The _Waterloo_ as well as two UNSC destroyers had been taken out of the fight. There was nineteen UNSC ships still fighting, against nine Covenant ships. Each side had one critically wounded ship.

"Chief Petty Officer Jones, get us the hell out of this fight, we'll be no use to the UNSC in this condition. Bring us to one of the Super MAC orbital gun docking stations." Captain Lewis gritted out. He hated running from fights, but with twelve levels breached, seven levels no longer existing, both of their MAC turrets gone and nineteen of their Archer Missile pods either blown up or empty, they were going to be dead in a matter of seconds and wouldn't be able to put up much of a fight.

They broke from the rest of the ships, and drifted back to Chiron. The _Atom_, had taken out two of the destroyers and was still engaged in combat with the other two. Dozens of levels on the supercarrier were breached and explosions littered its side, but it kept fighting. Supercarriers were equipped with five MAC turrets, five nukes and forty Archer Missile pods.

"Sir, sixty phantoms are approaching Mars surface, near Chiron's facilities" Leery exclaimed. "Lieutenant Colonel Moretti request immediate reinforcements. Also, hundreds of enemy drop ships are inbound to Earth. It seems the battle over there isn't going nearly as well as it is over here."

"Send the ground forces from the _Achilles_ to reinforce the Lieutenant Colonel. We'll make a jump into slipspace after they reach the surface. Hopefully we'll exit on the other side of Earth and away from the battle."

* * *

A holographic image of the battle outside floated in front of Christopher Benedetto, as well as a hundred other Marines. They could see the damage done to the UNSC destroyer, the _Aztec,_ to both the top and bottom of the ship and were grateful the barracks were in the middle of the ship. The battle for supremacy above Chiron seemed to be in the hands of the humans, but it wouldn't matter if Earth fell

"This is Captain Lewis speaking. All ground forces prepare for battle. Members of the _Achilles_, you'll be going to Chiron to assist in the defense of the Super MAC orbital gun's generators. The rest of you, the ones from my ship, will be going down to Earth to show those slimy bastards what happens when they try invading our home world. ETA before drop ships can leave for Chiron, ten minutes. ETA before drop ships can leave for Earth, forty minutes"

"Hear that Mikey, we get to do what we do best" Chris yelled over the noise of scurrying men and women.

"Make love?" Mikey called back.

"I said what we do best, not what I do best" Chris answered grinning. His armor was already on him and he already carried his guns. The armory was full of Marines and Army boys so he couldn't get extra ammo yet. "Yo Mikey, I'll be right back. I'm going to find Major Ivanova, see what is happening"

He got an nod from his best friend and set off down the corridor to the Major's office. He gripped the Assault Rifle in his hand tightly, as if the Covenant would come around any corner. Like most Marines he hated staying on starships, when the battle wasn't in their control. At least on the ground his fate was in his hands.

He reached the office without passing anyone and knocked sharply.

"Come in" Lance Corporal Christopher Benedetto opened the door swiftly and saluted his superior. "At ease soldier"

He relaxed his pose and let his arm drop to his side. "Ma'am I was wondering where are drop off zone would be"

Major Ivanova sighed warily. "It seems a damaged Covenant carrier is floating above the forks of Long Island, in America. Ten thousand troops had been deployed by the carrier to the ground and dozens of phantoms have dropped off troops from ships still in orbit. They control the whole entire island and our trying to work there way into Manhattan. Seven of the eight bridges attaching Long Island to the rest of New York and New Jersey have been destroyed. All of the tunnels underneath it have been destroyed and flooded during battles between our forces and theirs to control them. We're being dropped in to defend the Queensboro bridge, and to push the Covenant back pass Roosevelt Island, which is between Long Island and Manhattan, through Long Island and back to their ship. Enemy anti-air is extremely powerful on the coast and the ground forces are suppose to destroy it before we can really give it to them. An Army, army group is already on defense of the bridge but they don't have enough fire power to go on the offensive. A lot of Earth's tanks and warthogs had been shipped out to help defend the colonies and now we're paying the price for it"

"Why not destroy the Queensboro bridge?" the brown eyed male asked.

"They've set up a strong position all around Long Island. Our men tried an attack from sea, but their Seraphs and Phantoms did a number on our ships. Then we tried an attack by air but they already have a strong anti-air defense system set up. We even tried an amphibious landing but their plasma cannons and large plasma turrets destroyed most of our transports before they even landed. That bridge is our only way there" The Major explained.

"Well, the ODST is always ready to clear the ground for the Marines ma'am" Christopher exclaimed.

"What do you mean clear the ground. Manhattan is our territory and that is where we are dropping." The woman with the ugly scarring upon her cheek stated hotly.

"No offense ma'am but as a regular Marine, you have no idea what the ODST is capable of. You drop us anywhere on that island and we'll clear out the enemy, from south to north and UNSC will have control of the island again. The least you could do is see what the higher up ODST's might want. After all, they would understand the capabilities of their men a lot better then you...Ma'am" The Major stared at him incredulously.

"I'll consider it. Now get the hell out of my office Marine" Christopher saluted quickly before scurrying out of the room. He made his way back to the barracks, where he met Mikey half way there.

* * *

Sasha was not having a good day. First of all the Covenant had decided to show up ten days to early. Second of all she had been thrown around her office three or four times already. And now she was told that they would be required to go help defend Earth, which meant the Covenant bastards had been able to land some troops there.

She rubbed her temples tiredly. A knock could be heard at her door. "Come in" she called. An ODST soldiers opened the door and stood in the doorway, his hand at his forehead in a salute. "At ease soldier"

The Orbital Drop Shock Troopers looked a lot different then Marines. First off all their suits were camouflaged in different shades of grey, not just one shade of grey. Their armor was black, fitting and sleek. The Marine armor was bulky, brown and made to fit multiple body types. But the biggest difference was their helmets. The ODST helmet was black with a blue visor, hiding the face from view. The Marine helmet was brown with a green helmet recorder covering one eye.

Of course the ODST armor wasn't always like that. In fact it use to resemble Marine armor. However they had been given a new set of armor, based off of the MJOLNIR armor. It didn't have the shield, or enhance the abilities of the user and it needed to be strapped on separately to a standard suit, not all connected like the Spartan armor, but it was still a lot better then the old armor. There was a rumor that ONI was creating a Marine Combat Exoskeleton similar to the MJOLNIR armors first prototypes. These MCEs would be delivered to and used by Marines, maybe even turning the tide in battles.

The ODST soldier, a Lance Corporal by the look of their insignia, asked her where the drop off zone was. She explained the situation to him and answered his question on why they weren't destroying the bridge.

"Well, the ODST is always ready to clear the ground for the Marines ma'am" the ODST exclaimed.

"What do you mean clear the ground. Manhattan is our territory and that is where we are dropping." She said hotly. How she hated the cockiness the solider excluded.

"No offense ma'am but as a regular Marine, you have no idea what the ODST is capable of. You drop us anywhere on that island and we'll clear out the enemy, from south to north and UNSC will have control of the island again. The least you could do is see what the higher up ODST's might want. After all, they would understand the capabilities of their men a lot better then you...Ma'am" The Major stared at the ODST incredulously.

This ODST just talked back to a superior officer. If this was regular time, she would have him court martial, but she knew that any ODST was worth a whole squad of regular Army boys, all though she loathed to admit it.

"I'll consider it. Now get the hell out of my office Marine" The Lance Corporal saluted her quickly before scurrying out of the room. She rubbed her temples again but this time in irritation. She reached over and pressed a button in the COM link on her desk. "Gunnery Sergeant Waller can you please come to my office"

"Ma'am yes ma'am" The Gunnery Sergeant replied several seconds later.

It took several minutes for the Gunnery Sergeant to reach her office. Her door was already open, left open by the ODST in here earlier. He walked into her office and saluted.

"At ease" she said. "One of your soldiers came in here several minutes ago. Seemed to think ODST was going to drop in and clear Roosevelt Island for the rest of us."

The man shifted in his seat. She knew, he knew of her dislike for ODST. "That is the usual procedure ma'am. At least for us ODST ma'am" Waller stated.

She sighed warily. "Do you think it would be a good idea if we do it this time as well? Like the ODST soldier enlightened me, I don't know your capabilities, but I do know your records."

"Permission to speak freely ma'am?" the Gunnery Sergeant requested.

"Permission granted" Sasha replied.

"Well ma'am no offense to the Army or the Marines but if the ODST dropped in to clear the way, there would probably be a lot less casualties. Since we go behind the lines we'll encounter a lot less resistance and would be able to take out their defenses for the rest"

"Very well" she said. She pressed a button and a holographic image of the area appeared. "This is the island we are trying to get" Roosevelt Island was highlighted in green. "The south is an open area that leads into a forest. It is occupied by a farmhouse and an insane asylum. The center of the island is a cluster of office buildings, apartments and houses. There are some parks and sports fields in the center as well. The north is a handful of buildings and a small open area"

"It would probably be best if we drop in the south. Less chance of landing around a building occupied by Covenant." Gunnery Sergeant said, mostly to himself.

"The HEVs won't land in the river will they?" she asked. She didn't want those under her command dying because of some stupid reason as missing the LZ and drowning.

"No ma'am the HEVs have guiding systems that are extremely accurate" Waller answered.

"Alright then Gunnery Sergeant, get your men ready. And if you need to, take some of my Marines with you" she said, dismissing the man.

"Yes ma'am" Waller said, saluting the Major before leaving the room.

* * *

"Topher" Mikey yelled, using one of Christopher's nicknames in highschool, "the _Achilles_ boys have all left in their Pelicans. We're jumping into slipspace and are expected to emerge twenty five minutes from now, on the other side of Earth"

"That's good. I'm itching to kill some Covenant" Christopher proclaimed, a wicked gleam in his eye. They had to halt their conversation though as a Gunnery Sergeants walked by them. As soon as he had passed, they both dropped their salutes.

They walked back to the barracks together. The nervousness rolled off of most of the soldiers. "How is the battle outside?" he asked an Army Private, who was currently bent over a radio

"The space above Chiron is ours for now, we destroyed all those cruisers and a flagship. We sent the second flagship running. The _Atom_ took care of the four destroyers. Now it just depends on the ground forces. Two of the MAC orbitals guns have been destroyed, but the rest are still blasting away at the rear of the Covenant fleet. The remainder of the original Chiron fleet, the _Atom_, the _Legionnaire_ and the _Napoleon_ as well as twelve others are still guarding Chiron. Repairs are being made to them as quickly as possible, but it appears that another group of Covie ships are jumping to slipspace and exiting by Chiron.

"Half of the original fleet guarding Earth is gone, so are forty of the MAC turrets. The only consolation is that we took out nearly three hundred of their ships. The good news is that the twenty ships that were suppose to arrive later in the week, will be here in six hours. The Covenant have four drop zones on Earth. Long Island in America, New Mombasa in Kenya, Songnam in Korea and Sydney in Australia. A division of Marines and an army of Army boys have been sent to New Mombasa, along with Master Chief Spartan-117. The Helljumpers and a corps of Marines have been sent to Sydney and all of the Army personnel in Asia, which is about two million, is being sent to Songnam"

"And we're being sent to Manhattan to clear out Long Island" Chris said. Mikey and the Army Private stared at him in surprise. "I just found out from the major."

"Just seven-hundred and fifty of us!" The private ranted.

"There's already an army group of Army boys there defending the bridge. They just lack the firepower to fight back. And I know she didn't say it, but the skill as well"

Gunnery Sergeant Waller came back into the room and gathered the ODST around him. The other Marines and Army boys milling about gathered around, eager to hear what was going on. A holographic map of Manhattan, Long Island and Roosevelt Island appeared.

"ODST will drop in at the southern tip of Roosevelt Island." The designated area turned red. "The island is about one and a half miles long and only one-eighth of a mile at its widest point. Our landing zone is about five hundred feet wide and eight hundred feet long. We'll be packing as much demolition as possible. Once we land we are to clear out any Covenant in the area and take out all enemy turrets. Once the area is secure, Pelicans will come in with more supplies as well as Warthogs and Scorpions. The Covenant strength between the two pieces of the bridge is well beyond anything we could penetrate with a frontal assault. Two rushes across the bridge have lead to nothing except our forces getting halfway across before being slaughtered. We are suppose to hit them hard while there not looking and get their attention. Then the Army boys already down there are to push across the bridge. Once that stronghold is knocked out we'll continue to push north until all of Roosevelt Island is in our hand. By that time the Army boys should of set up a strong defensive position at the other end of the Queensboro bridge. Since there are one hundred HEV's left, fifty Marines are asked to volunteer." All of the Marines volunteered so they had to pick fifty out of them. "Good, go gather up some ammo"

The ODST and the fifty volunteered Marines walked into the armory. Christopher packed away ten extra clips of ammo for his MA5B Assault Rifle and twenty extra clips for his two M6C Magnum Pistol in his shot belt. He grabbed some grenades and slid them into pouches in his armor.

"Benedetto grab some satchel charges, you'll probably need them" Sergeant Parker called over. "Yes sir" Benedetto replied. He wasn't a demolitions expert, and only had limited knowledge in the area. He was trained to be a rifleman, and he had to say, he was a damn good one too. He loaded up a large pouch with some satchel charges and snapped it to the back of his shot belt. His canteen was filled with water and already secured. The basic medical supplies every soldier carried, which was biofoam, painkillers and bandages, were already secured in several pouches in his suit.

He saw Mikey, who carried a M19 SSM Rocket Launcher on his back and several magazines attached to his armor. He too had an assault rifle with extra clips but he only had one pistol. He gave Chris the thumbs up.

"Alright Marines. Lets load up!" Gunnery Sergeant Waller yelled out. Christopher followed the tide of soldiers out of the armory and out of the barrack.

They were split up into two groups. All the volunteered Marines were led to the twenty-five starboard side HEVs. The ODST were led to where the port side HEVs were stored. No names were engraved into these HEVs like they usually were to identify who occupied them.

"Dropping right out of the sky" Christopher started.

"And landing straight into hell" Mikey added.

"May our victory be total" They both continued together.

"Dropping right out of the sky. And landing straight into hell. May we live to fight tomorrow" all of the ODST had joined them in their little ceremony. It was a common thing for soldiers of their division, the "Death Landers" to repeat that little poem right before battle. They weren't as legendary as the Helljumpers but they weren't pushovers either. There were two Corps of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers. When ODST die, new ones are recruited to take their place. Therefor the number of ODST always equals sixty-thousand men. Then the two Corps of thirty-thousand each were divided into six divisions, with each one containing ten-thousand men.

Instead of joining the battles for other planets and Reach, five hundred Death Landers, including Christopher and Mikey, had been transferred to Chiron six months ago.

"Load up Death Landers! Or do you want to miss the show?" Waller bellowed. Chris quickly jumped into an available HEV and closed the hatch. He sat down in the padded seat that occupied the Human Entry Vehicle and buckled himself into the harness. The ride would be full of turbulence and the landing would be brutal. That is why the inside was nothing but padding.

"Where right above the drop zone Gunnery Sergeant Waller" Captain Lewis's voice came through the COM.

"Roger that sir. Death Lander's out!"

Christopher's HEV shook as it was ejected from the side of the _Aztec_. For a couple of seconds the HEV just floated in space. However it soon began shaking as it entered Earth's atmosphere. Sweat began forming on his head, soaking his brown hair as the small space he was in began heating up. There was a loud hiss as some cold air was blown on him. As soon as the HEV reached a certain temperature, the cooling systems kicked in.

However they didn't do much to limit the steady rise of the temperature. It appeared to be over a hundred and ten degrees and rising. He wondered how the Marines were handling the situation. They had never trained to handle such hot temperatures and some would probably get heatstroke or heat exhaustion.

The outside layers of the ceramic skin that the HEV's were made of started to peel away. The thermometer showed that it was a hundred and thirty degrees and the speedometer showed that he was dropping at over five hundred miles per hour. Suddenly the parachute attached to it gave way and the HEV gave a sudden jerk. His speed suddenly declined by two hundred miles and started to slow down. The temperature started to decline slowly as well. So far everything for him was going off without a hitch.

At a hundred miles per hours he heard a loud splash. The HEV went down some more, quickly losing speed, before it started to rise again. After a couple of seconds it just started bobbing.

"Oh no" He had landed in the East Side River. He hadn't even thought about potentially landing in the river. The HEVs were extremely accurate in their drops, using the same guiding systems many of the Cruise Missiles the UNSC packed used.

He unstrapped himself, popped open the hatch and took a big breath. It appeared that the HEV wasn't sinking yet because air was still inside the thing and kept it afloat. However once he opened the hatch water started to rush in and the HEV started going down. He quickly swung his Assault Rifle over his shoulder and pushed himself out of the HEV. Sunrise was just starting outside so there wasn't much visibility.

It was a struggle to stay afloat because his armor and guns weighed a good amount. Luckily all UNSC pouches were waterproof so the satchel charges and frag grenades were safe. His guns on the other hand might be ruined.

He swam swiftly to the island, which was only twenty feet away from him. Small burst of gunfire reached his ears, meaning the Covenant had converged upon the LZ. An explosion on the shore lit up the area he was swimming to and he could see and handful of ODST firing upon a group of jackals congregated near the beach.

He reached a point where his hands hit the ground as he swam so he stood up. The water was up to his waist. There was six jackals about fifteen feet to the left of him and they had a little shield wall going on, deflecting the bullets of the ODST weapons. He got down in the water again, to limit the amount of noise he would make and made his way over to the jackals.

He kept going until he was right behind the group of vulture like creatures and stood up. He swung his assault rifle around, pressed the stock of the weapon against his shoulder and took aim. He pulled the trigger and was relieved to see that his gun was working properly. He fired a series of three round burst, tearing into the backs of four jackals. The remaining two, without the side protection of the other jackals, were easily over come by the ODST on the beach.

"Friendly" he yelled out, walking out of the river and onto the shore. The four ODST troopers walked up to him.

"Topher! What the hell were you doing out in the river?" Mikey asked, confused.

"It seemed like a nice night for a swim. What do you think you dip shit? My HEV landed in the river. Lucky for that too, or else I wouldn't of been able to save your ass." Christopher replied. "Where's everyone else?"

"Don't know. Covenant came on us as soon as we landed. I landed with a group of fifteen but we all ran to avoid being surrounded and I lost them. Saw an explosion and came upon this group right here trying to take on some jackals and figured I'd help out" Mikey explained.

"Whose highest ranked?" Chris asked.

"I believe you are" one of the ODST stated. Christopher noted that the ODST who just spoke was a Private, along with two of the others. The three Privates carried assault rifles as well.

"Right." It appeared that they were at the very tip of the southern end of Roosevelt Island. The southern tip of Roosevelt Island was an open area, with the only buildings there being an insane asylum and a large farmhouse. Which was surprising because most farms on Earth were company owned and no houses resided on them. "We'll just make our way north and take out any enemy troops or big guns we come upon"

Explosions kept lighting up the coast on both sides of them. Gunfire and plasma shots could be heard everywhere. They picked the western coast to move up on, because most of the explosions happened on the eastern coast.

The first thing they came upon was a HEV with a Marine having a seizure inside. They immediately unstrapped him from his seat and laid him on the ground. Chris went into the HEV and opened up the medi-compartment in the side. He grabbed the anticonvulsant medication inside and ran back over to the Marine. He had the others hold down the Marine long enough for him to inject the medication into the Marines arm.

After several minutes the seizure stopped, however the Marine went into a deep sleep, called postictal period, which was a common thing after someone had a seizure. Scratches and burn marks littered the Marines neck and face, and both sides of the neck had a line of red, raw skin. They were most likely due to the harness cutting into the mans throat and scratching against his face while the man had spasms in his seat.

"We have to keep moving" Christopher stated.

"Well we can't leave the poor bastard" One of the Privates stated. The brown eyed solider sighed in annoyance as he hefted the Marine over his left shoulder. Mikey grabbed the Marines dropped BR55 Battle Rifle. They continued north for a little bit longer.

"Topher, look!" Mikey pointed to a large purple enemy plasma mortar set up thirty yards in front of them. One shade was visible, it was manned by a grunt. A dozen grunts and two elites patrolled along the plasma mortar.

He laid the asleep Marine down in a small ditch. "Give me that battle rifle" Mikey handed over the weapon. "You two" he pointed to two of the ODST Privates "are going to watch over Sleeping Beauty here. The rest of us are going to sweep around to see if they have anything on the other side" The two ODST privates nodded their heads.

Christopher, Mikey and the third ODST Private set off, arcing to the northeast. After several minutes they were able to see the other shade that sat on the other side of the plasma mortar. "Mikey, you take out the two shades with some rockets. I'll try taking out some of the Grunts before we move in to finish off what remains" They were a good hundred feet away from the group of Covenant.

Mikey set his assault rifle on the ground and swung the Jackhammer off his shoulder and into his hands. He looked through the scope for several seconds before pulling the trigger. He adjusted his aim to the right some and pulled the trigger again. The two rockets soared through the air before colliding with the Shade turrets and sending the charred remains flipping through the air. Mikey ejected the spent magazine and loaded up another one. He then set the safety back on the gun and picked up his assault rifle.

The two Elites started to look around frantically while the Grunts ran around in panic. Christopher aimed the BR55 Battle Rifle and let loose some three rounds burst. The bullets tore through the chest armor of one Grunt, sending the short creature to the ground. Another trio of bullets hit the methane tank of another Grunt, blowing it up and destroying the top half of the Grunt. Blue blood splattered upon the plasma mortar and the surrounding Grunts. Said Grunts started to panic even more. He kept picking off the panicking Grunts until the Elites finally realized where the bullets were coming from. They fired some plasma shots at them, which were off by several feet. Knowing the distance was too far, the Elites herded the last three Grunts to cover, in front of the plasma mortar and out of Christopher's sight.

The plasma mortar, which unnoticed to the three ODSt had turned its turret around to face them and let loose a burst of plasma. The large ball of plasma arced gracefully in the air towards them.

"Run!" Mikey yelled. They all ran forward as fast as their muscled legs would carry them. The ball of plasma hit the ground, throwing them all forward and blistering their backs. The three of them scrambled to their feet and continued their run towards the plasma mortar.

They reached the damn thing, nearly getting hit by another blast. "Mikey, you plant the charge, I'll watch left and you" he indicated the unnamed Private "watch right"

The other two quickly nodded and went about doing there job. Christopher edged to the corner of the plasma mortar and peaked out. He couldn't see the two Elites or the three Grunts, but he knew they were there. He continued watching that spot, waiting for the Covenant to try rushing them.

"Done" Mikey's voice filtered over the COM.

Chris brought his hand up to his helmet and pressed the COM button. "I'll throw a frag at their position and then we'll get the hell out of here" The ODST COM was private channel linked between ODST helmets. You could only talk to ODST personnel within a fifty yard range, anything further and anyone else and you needed a radio or walkie-talkie. In order to open up the COM link you needed to hit a button on the outside of your helmet and hold it.

Topher reached into one of the pouches that contained a frag. He moved out from behind the mortar plasma and crept along the side of it. As soon as he reached the corner of the side and front he stopped moving. He pulled the pin from the grenade, counted to six seconds and rolled it around the corner. The Grunts started to panic again and the Elites were 'Wort Wort'-ing. He ran several feet before the nade went off. The body of an Elite tumbled to the ground behind him. Half of the Elite's side was missing and purple blood was soaking the grass.

He peeked around the corner, just to make sure and saw nothing but the dead bodies of three Grunts and an Elite. He pressed the COM button. "All clear. Lets hightail it back to Sleeping Beauty and his guards"

They started to jog back to where they left the other three. However the sounds of the turret of the plasma mortar turning changed their plans. They broke out in an all out run, before finally hitting the dirt as Mikey pressed the detonator. A loud explosion shook the ground and debris started to litter the ground around them.

When they finally reached the other three they saw eight Grunt bodies littered the ground. One of the ODST was clutching his shoulder as the other one put away his medical supplies.

"A Grunt patrol came upon us several minutes ago. We used the ditch as cover and took them all out. However one of their dying twitches pulled the trigger on its Needler and two needles landed on his shoulder. Luckily the armor offered some protection and he is only missing a small chunk out of his shoulder" the uninjured ODST explained.

"You can still shot can't you" Christopher asked.

"Yes sir" the injured ODST replied.

"Good. Lets get moving. We got more things to blow up and more Covenant to put holes in"


	4. Retaking of Roosevelt

Important Events From 2007-2159 That Gave the UNSC So Much Power.

2008: February- A French citizen is arrested in America for holding public rallies trashing the American government. The French government, outraged, demands his release but, America refuses. Both sides build up there army, or in America's case, already being in war, divide their army's focus. Before war can break out the UN forces America to release the prisoner into French custody.

July- The war in Iraq ends as the last of America's troops withdraw.

2013: American President Rudy Giuliani makes American English the official language of America. (As of 2006 America has no official language. One must show basic knowledge in English in order to become a American citizen and it is used in all official business but it is not the official language of America, no language is.)

2017: The Two Day War starts between Russia and its neighbor Georgia. Named so because after two days of skirmishes the UN steps in and settled things peacefully.

2018: May to December- An all out war breaks out between Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya, Uganda and Central African Republic over border disputes and border smuggling. After several months of trying to end the fighting with negotiations the UN ask America, Great Britain and France to send armed forces to put an end to the conflicts after a group of Kenyan soldiers slaughters eight-thousand Ethiopian citizens. The three countries agree and by the end of December the war is over.

2021: Tired of the tensions between nations and their inability to solve things without going to war, the UN increases its authority in affairs between countries and creates its own standing army.

2021-2027: Dozens of almost-wars are stopped by the UN and its new army. Several countries are wary of the new UN and their new strength.

2028: The Mexican economy crashes and Mexico is plunged into chaos.

2030: After a year and a half of complete chaos in Mexico, the UN in a surprise move takes control of the country and sells it to the highest bidder, America.

2032: All of Mexico, which was divided into seven separate territories, is annexed by America as the 51st-57th states. This makes America now the largest country in the world with less then 200,000 square miles of land more then Russia. And though still third in size of population it closes the gap between American and India, second in population, by twenty percent.

2035: There is a clash between environmentalist and Brazilian troops over the destruction of the rain forest, for the construction of badly needed homes. Humans overpopulation of Earth is now a major issue in the world. A census showed Earth's human population at 11,394,l93,456.

2041: January- Five of the worlds strongest and richest countries, the United States, Australia, France, Great Britain and Japan, fund the building of a city on the moon.

March- Not to be outdone Russia, China, India, Sweden, Ukraine and Finland start their own fund to build a city on the moon. The race is on.

2043: An American space shuttle, carrying five astronauts, lands on Mars and man finally sets foot on the Red Planet. However upon leaving the planet, complications arose in the engines, stranding the crew and leaving them to suffocate to death when the air supply went low.

2047: Announcing their success, America, Japan, Britain, France and Australia each send five hundred citizens to their city on the moon for a trial run. The City is essentially a large dome with rich soil and hundreds of trees and plants to generate oxygen. The sewage of the city runs into a complex filtering machine that takes out all impurities in the water so it can be reused, this way they'd never get low on water.

2048: The city on the moon is a success, called Star City because drawings of stars have five points and the city is owned by five nations. More people immigrate to the lunar city.

2049: April- Russia, China, India, Sweden, Ukraine and Finland, finish there city on the other side of the moon. It too is a success, though only a third of the size of Star City when it was first built. Their city, when translated from Russian to English, is called Lunar Hope.

August- Soon Star City has a population of over ten-thousand people. Dozens of additions have been added to it, expanding the city as far as possible across the moon.

2055: After six more years the two lunar cities have a population combined total of fifty-three thousand citizens. The eleven nations have restricted anymore immigration to the cities because of the over-crowding that was happening and the fact that most of the moons surface was covered with the two cities.

2056: Though the two lunar cities have slowed down the issue, overpopulation of Earth was still a major issue. Too help stall the problem several cities are built over the water and buildings are built taller.

2062: Russia tries to buy the other five nations out of the city. When the other countries refuse, they try taking it, claiming they spent the most money on it. Soon a war is about to break out. In order to stop the war, the UN steps in again. The UN takes control of Lunar Hope from all six of the nations and puts it under UN control. In a bold move, they also do the same to Star City, angering the five nations who built it and were getting along fine. American troops march on the UN headquarters in New York and demand the return of Star City to the five nations. However the UN refuses. A small skirmish goes on between the US troops and the UN guards. All heads of the UN are arrested and the UN is kicked out of their headquarters in the United States. The United States, Russia and Great Britain leave the United Nations.

2076: All the planets of the solar system had finally been explored by human eyes. An expedition had finally landed on Pluto and explored the small planet. There is no place in the solar system man has no been.

2078: The UN had been struggling on without the aid of Russia, Great Britain and the US. Those three countries use to pay most of the money the United Nations received. Not only that but they also provided the better equipment the United Nations army used. In an attempt to reconcile with the first, second and fourth strongest countries in the world (America, Russia and Great Britain respectively), the UN built three separate cities, two on Mars and one on Jupiter's moon, Io and then offered them to the three countries. America and Russia got the ones on Mars and Great Britain got the one on Io.

2089: The human population is spread throughout the last seven planets of the solar system, including any moons of the planets. Which is good because Earth wouldn't of been able to handle the 37,304,394,408 humans alive.

2109: After supplies sent to a new colony on Pluto was stolen the United Nations created the United Nations Space Command. This way the United Nations could exert more force in the other communities around the solar system.

2113: The United Earth Government is created to help create a stronger bond between the nations of Earth. It is also developed to regulate Earth in general, like inter-planet trade and colony immigration. This way no one country can control the happenings of the solar system. The UNSC is its military force, and helps enforce the laws.

2116: A census shows that American English is the most spoken language of humans, when combining primary and secondary speakers. Mandarin Chinese is the most spoken primarily but not many other then the Chinese know it.

2123: Overpopulation again is becoming another problem. Every relatively flat area in the solar system had been used as construction zones for the creation of human cities. Now, with over 67,343,456,783 people in the solar system, all those places have been taken.

2129: With a lot of prodding from America, the UEG makes American English the official language of the UEG, UNSC and any colonies founded by either of the two. This angers many other nations but there isn't much they can do.

2149: Several rebellious factors and countries have tried to undermine the authority of the UEG and UNSC but had all been effectively dealt with. However a new group, called the Koslovics, a group that wanted to return to the old ways of Communism, emerged with a hefty number of members.

2153: The UNSC forces and the Koslovics have engaged in several small space battles as Koslovic soldiers tried hijacking interplanetary ships and stealing their supplies.

2158: The Friedens, a fascist group, emerges from the anti-Koslovic feeling throughout the solar system.

Chapter 3 Retaking of Roosevelt

The sun had risen higher in the sky, lighting up the island a good amount. They could now see from one to coast to the other. As far as Christopher could tell nothing much was going on near them on the east coast.

As soon as they passed the remains of the plasma mortar they blew up, they could see, a good hundred yards in front of them, two Covenant Anti-air plasma guns. Six Shade turrets manned by Grunts, a ghost ridden by an Elite, two dozen Grunts, half a dozen Jackals and three Elites protected the two guns. A group of UNSC soldiers were shooting at the position from a large white building, most likely the insane asylum, which rested seventy feet away from the Covenant guns. Thirteen HEVs littered the area.

Two of them were in the middle of medium size craters, meaning they crashed to the ground, their parachutes either failing or being burned through with plasma. The charred remains of another laid not to far from the asylum, most likely shot out of the sky by the Anti-air plasma guns.

"How far do you have to be before you can get a lock on that ghost?" Christopher asked, turning towards Mikey.

"I'd say about two hundred feet would be good." Mikey answered. "I got enough ammo to take out five of those Shade turrets as well."

Christopher nodded his head before looking at the Marine he carried. "We're going to need everyone on this" He laid the Marine down on the ground. He had been asleep for a good half hour now and he was getting damn heavy. For the first time he took a good look at the Marines name; Private O'Brien. Christopher grabbed his canteen, screwed off the lid and poured some water over O'Brien's face. It was unwise to wake up someone in the postictal period but they really needed the Marine Private.

O'Brien spluttered some before sitting up and staring at the five ODST that stood around him.

"Welcome back to the land of the awake" Mikey drawled.

"What...what happened?" the Marine asked.

"You suffered a mild case of heatstroke and had a seizure. You should consider yourself lucky because any worse and you might of died without proper medical attention. We managed to come across you before the Covies did and have been dragging you around for half an hour. But right now we're gonna need you." Christopher explained. He pointed off to where the Covenant anti-air guns and protection were. O'Brien looked over at it and his eyes widened at the sight. "We are going to be attacking that position and need you to cover our backs with your battle rifle"

At the mention of his weapon, the Marine Private looked around wildly before Chris pushed the weapon into the Marines arm. O'Brien grabbed his weapon properly and stood up, rubbing his neck while doing so.

The formerly sleeping soldier looked around him, probably to find a good firing position. However his attempts were futile. They were by nothing except a gravel road and open area. However, a large grin spread across O'Brien's face.

"I'll get your back, don't worry" the Marine said. He then proceeded to run off towards the water.

"I like him" Mikey stated.

"Of course you do. You like anyone that is as idiotic as your are" Christopher stated.

"I like you" Mikey fired back.

"Point proven" Christopher replied with a laugh. "Now, all kidding aside, lets get going" They set off at a brisk walk towards the Covenant position. When they got about two hundred feet away from the Covenant, who were to focused on the insane asylum, which was littered with scorch marks and holes, they stopped.

The Ghost was strafing in front of the asylum, shooting at any movement it saw in the windows. Mikey tried getting the Ghost at center of his sight with the rocket for several seconds before Chris heard the beep of a target lock. The customary sound of a flying rocket got softer and softer as it descended upon the Ghost. A Grunt was the first to catch sight of the flying rocket and quickly yelled a warning to its comrades. The Ghost pilot looked at the rocket closing in on him and tried maneuvering out of the way. However, the rocket was locked on and wouldn't be deterred. The rocket turned right and crashed into the rear of the fleeing vehicle.

"Use the rest of your SPNKr rockets on the Shades and then move in to help us out" Chris told his friend. Chris and the three Private ODSTs moved forward, sending sporadic burst of assault rifle fire at the Covenant. Green and blue plasma came flying at them. The closest Shade turned around to face them and started to fire at them. They split apart, two going left and two going right. A rocket zoomed across where they just stood and collided with the Shade turret before it could do any damage.

Luckily for the humans plasma moved slower then bullets, so at farther distances you could get out of the way. A green plasma shot hit Chris in his chest, but his new armor prevented it from burning through. Another rocket whizzed by them, crashing into the second closest Shade.

The Jackals shuffled forward to meet them, their shields protecting them against any bullets. They shot some plasma at the ODSTs but due to their movement, their aim was off.

Christopher went to the right with the Private that helped him and Mikey blow up the plasma mortar. He could tell because this ODST was shorter then the other two and wasn't bulging in muscles like the other two were. He spared a quick glance at their name and saw _Private Russino _etched into the ODST armor. Another plasma bolt struck him, this time his shoulder and the armor there started to melt. He couldn't lose his focus like that.

Private Russino grabbed a frag from one of the pouches of his armor and threw it at the jackals. They all stopped and ducked behind their shields to protect themselves against the frag less then a foot in front of them. The grenade blew and the force of the explosion made the jackal's shields raise in the air, exposing their lower halves. Bullets quickly tore their knees apart and the Jackals fell to the ground squawking loudly.

Christopher tackled Private Russino to the ground as a Shade opened up on the area the Private just occupied. Another rocket flew at the Covenant position, coming from a different area then the last few. The explosion from the Rocket destroyed the firing Shade's power battery, causing an even bigger explosion.

With half of the Shades and the Ghost gone, the UNSC soldiers hiding in the asylum weren't effectively suppressed. Their fire power helped take out some of the Grunts and draw some of the concentration away from the four advancing ODST.

The sounds of a firing BR55 Battle Rifle could be heard coming from the left flank of the Covenant. The dying sounds of an Elite reached Christopher's ears and another rocket soared into a Shade turret.

A charged ball of a plasma pistol flew towards the two ODST Privates to the left and collided with one of them, burning right through the armor. The Private fell to the ground screaming in pain as his skin was turned black by the intense heat of the plasma. The other Private dropped to the ground and fired a whole clip at the Covenant. Unfortunately none of his shots did any good, except bounce of the Elites shield and the Anti-air plasma guns.

The two remaining Elites moved to engage Christopher and Private Russino. Christopher moved in a random zig-zagging motion. A couple of plasma shots hit him in various places, melting the armor but not working its way to his skin. He unloaded a full clip towards the Elite, wearing down the Elite's shield and finally killing it.

He reloaded his rifle and turned his attention to help out Private Russino with his Elite. Together they dispatched of the beast in five seconds. Another Shade turret had been taken out by Mikey. That left one Shade and a dozen and a half of Grunts. He couldn't really see the last Shade, just the legs of it. The Grunt were no trouble at all. The constant sound of three-round bursts coming from the water assured him that the Private O'Brien was in fact alive. The UNSC personnel in the asylum mopped up the remaining Grunts from their cover. The lone Grunt in the Shade tried putting up a fight, but there was too many UNSC and they were firing at it from two different directions. Poor bugger never really stood much of a chance.

Chris pressed his COM button. "Clear" he said.

Several other voices said "Clear" meaning some ODST occupied the asylum. Mikey ran up behind Christopher and went to the Anti-air gun. Private O'Brien came out of the water to cover Mikey's back and Chris went to help him. Minor Elites usually occupied the heavy guns like this and he didn't want them popping out to try killing Mikey. Private Russino and the other uninjured Private had picked up the wounded one and were carrying him to the asylum.

"Chris I don't have enough explosives, hand over yours" Mikey exclaimed. Chris quickly unstrapped his pouch of satchel charges and tossed them to Mikey. It took several minutes of quiet cursing from Mikey before the explosives were set and ready blow. "Lets get to that asylum"

The three of them backpedaled away from the Anti-air plasma guns. When they were ten yards away from it one of the hatches opened and an Elite pulled itself out. They fired upon it, peppering it with bullets. The Elite ducked back into the hatch to avoid being killed. They continued their backpedaling until they were at the asylum. Two dead ODST and one dead Marine lay in front of the asylum doors.

This time both hatches popped open and the Elites climbed out. However it did them no use because Mikey blew the explosives. The explosion was huge, large pieces of debris crashed into the metal walls of the asylum, denting it in some places and tearing jagged holes in it, in others.

A Sergeant was standing at the doorway, waiting for them. "I'm sure glad you boys showed up. We were in a tough spot with those Shades and Ghost"

"Just doing our job sir. How many men do you have with you?" Christopher inquired.

"Well out of the thirteen that landed here two were killed before the hatches were opened and one was critically wounded. Three were shot down before we even made it in here. We posted two to watch the Covenant out there and set the critical down. The remaining five of us went to make sure the building was secured. Wasn't a pretty sight sir. It appears the patients and aids here were eaten alive by Grunts and Jackals. The upper levels are nothing but blood baths. It appeared that some of them stayed in the building and we lost another two in some small firefights. Luckily a group of seventeen others showed up from the back door. Lost five in the little battle with the Covenant outside and probably would of lost more if you didn't show up" the Sergeant rambled on.

Christopher did the calculations in his head. 'Let's see thirteen minus two. Minus another three, minus two again. Add seventeen, subtract five and you get eighteen, well seventeen and one critical. Plus the six of us, with one critical. That makes twelve dead, two criticals and twenty-two battle ready men.'

"You guys have a radio?" he asked the Sergeant.

"Second floor, room 2F" the Sergeant replied. Christopher walked towards the staircase visible over the Sergeants soldier. Mikey and Private O'Brien followed him. When they got to the top of the stairs Chris had to stop himself from gagging at the stench of the dead. A corpse with half of its skin and meat gone was right in front of them. Blood soaked the floor and walls.

Christopher picked up the rotting corpse and moved it away from the top of the staircase. "Don't want the morale of the troops to lessen every time they use this staircase" he offered as an explanation to his action. The two soldiers with him nodded their heads in understanding.

They continued their way to 2F which was just down the hallway. 2F appeared to be the only room on the second floor without a body or blood occupying it. Private Russino was already in the room, laying down on one of the two beds that sat in the room. The radio was sitting atop a desk that was placed in the corner. Chris moved over and picked up the radio while Private O'Brien and Mikey sat down on the bed. He placed his MA5B Assault Rifle on the desk, next to the radio.

"This is Lance Corporal Christopher Benedetto of the Third Battalion 101st ODST Division, does anyone copy?" The radio was set on a specific frequency so only the soldiers that were on the mission or helping the mission could hear it. This way other soldiers didn't hear what was going on in different mission and things didn't get confusing.

"Is that you Benedetto?" the voice of Gunnery Sergeant Waller crackled over the radio.

"Yes sir" Benedetto replied.

"What is your position boy?" Waller asked.

"I'm in the asylum sir, with twenty-five other men, two of which are critically wounded. Are the reinforcements on their way?" Christopher asked.

"Damn right they are. Just got word from Major Ivanova, the last Covenant anti-air had been taken out a couple of minutes ago and the Pelicans are taking off any minute now. Estimated ETA fifteen minutes"

"Roger that sir Are you anywhere near by?"

"Me and forty-two other men are holed up in the farmhouse, about a hundred and fifty feet northeast of your position. We're sitting tight and waiting for the reinforcements and I suggest you do the same"

"Roger that sir. Lance Corporal Benedetto out" Chris put down the radio and turned to the three other occupants in the room. "Fuck its been an intense day" He took of his helmet and set it on the desk. His hair was sticking to his head and his face was coated in a sheen of sweat. He walked over to the bed where Private Russino and used the sheet on it to wipe his face.

Mikey pulled off his helmet as well. "You think that Private is going to make it?" he asked.

"No clue" Chris replied with a shrug. They had been trained to separate themselves away from the anger, fear, grief and all other negative emotions that accompanied ones death. "But I'm sure glad I have this armor. If I was wearing the old crap, I would of died dozens of times today" Chris indicated the spots on his armor where the armor had been melted.

Private O'Brien suddenly stood up and offered his hand to Mikey. Mikey looked at him oddly before shaking it. Then Private O'Brien offered his hand to Chris, who shook it, and Private Russino, who shook it as well.

"Names Private Jake O'Brien and I'm damn grateful you guys saved my life" The Marine took of his helmet, revealing short dark red hair.

"Names Private First Class Michael Cimino and I'm damn grateful you've got skill with that BR55" Mikey stated.

"Lance Corporal Christopher Benedetto, and I'm just damn grateful we kicked some Covie ass" Chris said grinning.

They all turned expectantly to Private Russino. Giving a sigh he removed his helmet...only it wasn't a he underneath the helmet.

"Private Dominique Russino and I don't know why you guys are even bothering" she declared. Dominique Russino had shoulder length black hair that clung to her neck due to sweat. She had green eyes and a slightly big nose, with dozens of brown freckles sprinkled across it. Her cheeks were rosy color, whether from heat or if they were just naturally like that, Chris didn't know. Dozens of freckles littered her cheeks as well. Her bottom lip was full and her top lip was as well, to a smaller extent; both were pink.

She wasn't the drop dead gorgeous girl Chris always imagined himself settling down with. She wore no makeup, but she had this natural beauty no other girl he met cold contend with. Plus, she was not only tough enough to make it into the ODST but she was brave and knew how to fight. All in all, Chris found no flaw in Dominique Russino, none at all.

"Dude, he's a she" Mikey replied dumbly.

"What? No girl could ever be a ODST?" she asked testily. From the embarrassed look on Mikey's face, that was exactly what he was thinking.

"I think I'm in love" Chris mumbled. Jake, who was closest to him, nodded his head in agreement.

* * *

Major Ivanova sat in the rear bay of one of the sixty-five Pelicans that were inbound to Roosevelt Island. A M808B Scorpion MBT was attached to the back of the craft, one of three they were taking down with them. The Pelican radio was in her hand and she was explaining the situation to the rest of the soldiers.

"Alright, Gunnery Sergeant Waller has told us that one group of Marines is holding up in the asylum and he has a group in the farmhouse. We have a total of sixty-seven men accounted for, nine of which are critically injured and need to be evacuated. Estimated deaths are thirty-three, though only twenty one of them are confirmed. Estimated Covenant strength on Roosevelt Island is six thousand troops, dozens of large plasma turrets, Shades, Ghosts and several Wraiths.

"About 117,000 United States Army personnel have set up a strong position on the Manhattan side of the bridge. However they lack the mobile firepower to push across. Which is where we come in. We hit them hard and fast in their center and while they're running around like a bunch of shits, the US Army is going to push across the bridge. Then we'll set up a base on Roosevelt Island and take care of our wounded" she explained.

"ETA two minutes" The Pelican's pilot called over his shoulder.

The Pelican slowed down in its descent, before stopping several inches from the ground. A loud thud was heard as the Pelican disengaged its Scorpion. The Pelican then proceeded ro move forward a little bit. One of the Marines closest to the rear door pressed a button, opening it.

Sasha jumped out of the Pelican with the other nine Marines. The metal structure of the asylum was littered with scorch marks and holes, where the plasma burned through. Seventy-five Pelicans were aboard the _Aztec_ and all of them were used in this drop off so they could get the maximum number of vehicles possible. Thirty-six other Pelicans landed around her, disengaging their Warthogs and troops. The other half of the Pelicans had moved off to the farmhouse to unload its troop.

She walked towards the metal building, met half way by a Marine Sergeant. Sine they were in a battle situation salutes weren't required. Several Medics rushed past her to help the wounded inside. The pungent smell of death attacked her nose.

"Why does this place reek of death Sergeant?" she asked.

"Grunts and Jackals feasted on the patients and staff here" the Sergeant replied, his face pale.

She suddenly felt very queasy and wondered why she had to ask the question. "Go gather up all the men in there. We're moving out to rendezvous with the others"

"Yes ma'am" the Sergeant said.

"Where's your radio?" she inquired.

"Second floor, room 2F" She nodded her head in thanks before setting of to find the room. The first floor appeared to be relatively clean and she didn't see any of the carnage the Sergeant talked about. That all changed when she reached the second floor. It was hard to tell what the original color of the walls were due to all the blood that soaked them.

She found the room with the radio. It was already occupied by four Marines, three of them ODST. The three ODST had their helmets off and she was pleasantly surprised to see that one was female. They were joking around, well the three males were joking around while the female rolled her eyes at them.

They stood up as she entered the room. She identified one of them as the Lance Corporal who approached her on the _Aztec_ and got her to contemplate this operation. He was a young male, around twenty years of age. The radio sat on a desk top and she walked towards it.

"This is Major Ivanova. What is the status on Beta Pelicans drop off?" she asked.

"This is Echo 39 Major. All vehicles disengaged and all troops deployed. The wounded are being loaded up now ma'am. We should be ready to leave in a minute." A voice crackled over the radio.

"Tell Gunnery Sergeant Waller that Alpha team will be there in a few minutes for the rendezvous"

"Yes ma'am"

Sasha put down the radio and turned toward the four still standing Marines. "Your rides are here. Get downstairs and load up in some Warthogs and don't forget the radio"

"Yes ma'am" they answered. The Lance Corporal grabbed the radio and his assault rifle from the desk and they all jogged out of the room. She followed them at a slower pace. The thirty-five Warthogs of all different variants were overloaded with troops.

* * *

"I'm driving!" Mikey yelled out. They had rendezvoused with Gunnery Sergeant Waller and the troops and vehicles from Beta Pelicans five minutes ago. The higher ups had met inside the farmhouse to go voer the plan of action and try to make it as perfect as possible. Then the soldiers were assigned their vehicles and groups.

Christopher, Mikey and Dominique had been assigned to a standard M12 LRV Warthog in Team Charlie. Team Charlie's job was to lead the charge through the Covenant stronghold. There were two roads from the farmhouse that lead to the bridge. In between the two roads was about nine buildings. While driving towards the bridge, Team Charlie was to take out any enemy they saw, but to not stop moving. Teams Alpha, Beta and Delta would all be moving by the series of buildings too. Team Gamma was to stay behind and take care of any enemies in the buildings.

Long ago the Queensboro bridge just ran through the island and was only four lanes, two going from Manhattan to the borough of Queens, and two going from Queens to Manhattan. Now though it was ten lanes and had four off-ramps, two on each side leading on and off the bridge. They were to drive up one of the off-ramps on their side, punch a hole through the Covenant defenses and go down an off-ramp on the other side. Then they were to take out any reinforcements coming in from the north side of the island.

During the confusion the Covenant would hopefully suffer, Team Alpha was to expose the hole they punched through, while Teams Delta and Bravo punched a hole at the other off-ramp. Team Delta was then to move and take care of any reinforcements coming from the Covenant on Long Island. During the ensuing battle for control of the middle of the bridge, the US Army at the Manhattan end would come rolling down to help out.

"I wouldn't trust you to drive anything. I'll drive" Christopher said. The two friends looked at each other for a second before dashing off towards the Warthog. Chris got their first, he jumped into the driver seat and stuck his tongue out as his friend. Unfortunately the gesture was wasted because he had his helmet on.

"Why do I get stuck with two of the dumbest ODST?" Dominique asked noone in particular.

"Psh, she can get shotgun" Mikey said as he climbed onto the back. The fourteen other Warthogs of Team Charlie were already to go. There was two M12A1 LAAV Warthogs, with their 102mm three-barreled SC-HE rocket launcher. Six were M12G1 LAAV Warthogs, with a gauss cannon mounted on their backs. The last six were the same M12 LRV Warthogs as Chris, Mikey and Dominique.

Team Charlie did not to have a Scorpion. It contained only forty-five of the six hundred men embarking on the mission to capture the middle of the bridge. The reason why it was only six hundred was that one hundred and eight men were part of Team Gamma and wouldn't help in the capturing of the bridge . Though they should consider themselves luck they weren't given the transport variant of the Warthog, with no mounted gun and an extended back to carry six men, besides the driver and shotgun. Most of which were assigned to Team Gamma for use.

Team Charlie's leader was Sergeant Parker, a hard ass Marine and a survivor of Reach. He was a tall, muscular black man with a jagged scar running diagonally across his lips. He sat in the passenger seat of one of the M12A1 LAAV Warthogs.

"Are you three dumbass' ready?" the Sergeant yelled.

"Yes sir!" Mikey shouted, as Dominique climbed into the passenger seat.

"Then lets get going!" The sound of fifteen Warthogs starting was a soothing sound for Chris. It reassured him of the power the UNSC had and what it could do to the Covenant.

The other Warthogs moved forward, and Christopher stepped on the pedal, keeping up with the rest. They took the road on the western side. Grunts tried scurrying out of their way, but were mowed down by the line of Warthogs. The buildings were pelted with bullets as the seven M12 LRV Warthogs shot at the Covenant hiding there.

Behind Team Charlie was Team Alpha, all moving at the maximum speed of a tank. Team Beta and Team Delta were moving at the same pace on the other side. Team Gamma hadn't left the farmhouse yet.

The off-ramps were only two lanes wide, so they had to move in at a double line. The top of the off-ramp was guarded by Covenant floating roadblocks and four large plasma turrets. On the other side of the roadblocks, Chris could see a Wraith tank aiming in on their position.

The lead two Warthogs fired their three rockets seconds from each other, from their three-barreled rocket-launches. The floating roadblocks immediately fell from the ground, the large plasma turrets were blown to smithereens and the Wraith tank fell to the ground as its anti-gravity device failed.

The Wraith fired a shot before several high caliber slugs, courtesy of the gauss cannons mounted on some of the Warthogs, blew it up. The ball of plasma went in a low arc, over the first fourteen vehicles and crashed into the last Warthog. The loud explosion rung in Chris's ears for several seconds. The Warthog he was in lifted off the ground some as it went off the ramp, before landing back down on the bridge.

Ghosts and Spectres came soaring at them. Plasma shots collided with the side of the Warthog as Chris fish tailed it into a Jackal. The 12.7mm three-barreled M41 LAAG machine-gun roared to life as Mikey let loose on a nearby Ghost. One of the lead Warthogs had blown a hole in the barricade that separated the two sides of the bridge. The other one blew a hole in the floating roadblocks, that protected the off-ramp they were leaving on.

The driver to the Warthog next to Chris got hit in the face with a plasma bolt. The Warthog he was driving careened out of control, smashing into a Ghost and sending them both into the wall of the bridge. Said wall didn't hold very well at all, and both vehicles tumbled to the ground fifteen feet below.

The two lead Warthogs went down the off-ramp, the others following. Chris saw a ball of plasma from a Wraith flying towards the entrance of the off-ramp and slammed on his breaks. He wasn't the only one to see it though as two other Warthogs stopped. A fourth Warthog though apparently didn't see it. The ball it behind the Warthog, and sent it flipping into the air.

The three Warthogs remaining on the bridge, went forward again, going down the off-ramp and avoiding the destroyed, upside down Warthog. The Marine who manned the gauss cannon was missing his legs and was pinned under said gauss cannon. The back tires were blown off the vehicle and the front two were melted. The driver had his head crushed between the asphalt and the dashboard. The passengers lay dangling in his seat, blood leaking from his eyes.

Glancing behind him, Chris saw charred remains of several Covenant vehicles and the dead bodies of two dozen or so Covenant soldiers. The twelve remaining Warthogs of Team Charlie gathered on a three-way intersection.

There was several large buildings on this side of the bridge, and Team Gamma wouldn't be arriving for who knows how long. Beyond the large buildings there was a large soccer/baseball field on the eastside and a school on the westside. A road separated the two and the road they were currently on curved around the other side of the school.

"Corporal Lovik, you're team will carry out the demolitions on the buildings. Start with the one in the middle and see how many you can take out with that one blast" Sergeant Parker ordered.

"Yes sir" the Corporal barked. Several bags of explosives were passed to that Warthog, just to make sure they had enough.

"Lance Corporal Adams, you'll be watching the west off-ramp. Private First Class Hosky you'll be watching the east off-ramp." The Sergeant was cut off as large explosions, the sounds of heavy machine gun fire and stray plasma bolts flew over their heads. "Benedetto, you'll be watching the far side of that soccer field, make sure no Covenant bastards try slipping by us"

"Yes sir" Chris shifted into reverse to get out of the circle of Warthogs. He then shifted into drive, and just missed one of the other Warthogs still in the circle. He drove off toward the east, and felt the Warthog bounce underneath him as he drove up the curb and onto the once manicured field.

* * *

Sasha gripped her battle rifle tightly in her hands. She was sitting in the passenger seat of a Transport Warthog, part of Team Alpha. She was in the rear of the formation, the Scorpion tank in the front.

The explosions caused by Team Charlie had lifted her spirits, but the explosions OF Team Charlie had sunken that spirit right to the ground. It was a constant reminder of everything coming with a price. There could be no victory without loses, something all commanders had to learn.

A loud explosion sounded to the east of them, which meant Teams Bravo and Delta had reached the Covenant blockade. The Scorpion tank in Team Alpha fired as well. A Ghost flipped in the air several times before landing back down with a crash.

The driver went up and onto the bridge, where complete chaos reigned. About fifty Warthogs wove around the bridge, reeking havoc on the Covenant forces. Covie Ghost tried keeping up with the slower vehicles but they were out numbered. Slow moving Spectres and Shadows tried helping the Ghost but they were easy prey for the constantly moving Warthogs. The three Scorpion tanks were trading shots with the half a dozen Wraiths. While the Wraiths could take more damage, the Scorpions could mostly get out of the way of the slow moving ball of plasma the Wraiths shot.

The driver drove pass a squad of Grunts hiding behind several stationary shields. While not a big threat, every armed being was a threat and all threats had to be eliminated.

"Make a pass at those Grunts!" she yelled to the driver over the roar of the Warthog. The driver glanced to where she was pointing and nodded his head. The Warthog turned sharply, its rear fishtailing. The Marines in the back let out surprised yelps as they were thrown against there harnesses.

They went by the Grunts again, but this time she was ready. A frag was in her hand the second they turned around and as the Warthog started to pass the Grunts she pulled the pin and chucked the damn thing at the little things. The grenade flew over the shields and exploded right above the squad of Grunts. They were littered with shrapnel and none of them survived.

She let out a whoop of triumph and turned back to face the front. It appeared that the driver of the Warthog was paying attention to the Grunts to. It also appeared that the driver of the Ghost flying at them wasn't paying much attention either, probably due to the Marine it just chucked from its Ghost. However when both driver finally did pay attention to what was going on in front of them it was too late to swerve out of the way. Both vehicles slammed on their brakes, the Warthogs front going down and the Ghost front going up.

Everyone braced for an impact but it never came. The front of the Ghost went up the hood of the Warthog, where its anti-gravity device lifted it over the human vehicle. It then proceeded to launch over the rest of the Warthog before hitting the ground on its right wing. The Ghost spun wing over wing for several seconds before coming to a halt. The Elite that was driving it fell out of the damaged vehicle and weakly pulled itself to its feet. The Marines in the back unloaded on it, splattering its purple blood on the pavement.

They turned around again, the driver intent on helping out another Warthog take down a Shadow. However, an explosion sounded behind her and waves of heat quickly assaulted her. The Warthog was sent tumbling in the air before landing right side up with a heavy crash. Sasha shook herself clear of the dizziness that encompassed her. The only real damage to her was the blistering of her back due to the heat and the bruises of the harness digging into her shoulders. She had also dropped her battle rifle during the flipping. She turned to the driver to see him laying against the steering wheel. A quick check of his pulse showed he was alive.

"You guys alright back there?" she turned to the Marines in the back, only too see that they weren't there. In fact the whole entire rear of the Warthog was gone, due to the explosion that just happened. That is when she noticed the decline of the Warthog. She hastily unstrapped herself from the passenger seat and scrambled out.

The Warthog was resting against the barrier between the two sides and was most likely going to be hit sooner or later. The stationary shields with the dead grunts were thirty feet in front of her and was probably the only protection she could get. The shields may not of stopped vehicles but they did stop against grenade explosions, plasma bolts and bullets.

A large explosion sounded on the north side of the bridge and Sasha could see the fire and dust in the air. She just hoped that was a UNSC caused explosion.

She scrambled to the other side of the half-Warthog and unstrapped the unconscious driver. She hauled the man over her shoulder. The driver was a relatively skinny man, not enough muscle to be a Marine.

A Warthog zoomed by her, a Ghost hot on its heels. She ran across the street to the sidewalk just in tome as a Spectre drove by. It was being pursued by two Warthogs, both Transport variants, the Marines in the back were unloading everything they had into the Spectre which only had a driver in it. She reached the stationary shields and tossed aside the carcasses of the Grunts. The ground was covered in blue blood and chunks of the small alien race and it smelt horrible but it was the only cover she had. She could see the faint outline of the U.S. Army coming across the bridge on the other side. They had a few M12 LRV Warthogs, about a dozen or so Transport Warthogs and three FWSTT Trucks but that was it.

FWSTT stood for Four Wheel Supply and Troop Transport and it meant exactly what the FWSTT stood for. It was as large as a standard eighteen–wheeler but more stable and less likely to tip on sharp turns. The back was equipped with ground harnesses and cables for carrying supplies and benches that could come out of the ground to seat a hundred troops . The armor was standard Titanium-A plating, good against bullets but relatively useless against plasma shots.

A Grunt was running towards her position. She took the M6D He Pistol out of its holster at her hip and aimed it at the alien. She put two rounds in the Grunt's neck, killing the thing instantly.

Major Ivanova ducked quickly as Ghost went threw the stationary shields and over the wall of the bridge. Luckily the vehicle floated high enough over the ground so that anything four feet and below was safe from being run over. The shields popped back into existence seconds later.

A Transport Warthog pulled up on the other side of the stationary shields.

"Need a ride Major?" the driver asked.

"You got that right" she hefted the still knocked out driver from the Warthog she was originally in. Two Marines from the back jumped out and took the driver from her, laying him down in the back. The Army solider in the passenger seat jumped out and climbed into the back, allowing her to sit there.

She hopped in and strapped the harness around herself. The Warthog took off, weaving around the wrecked vehicles that littered the bridge.

"This is Major Ivanova. What's the general status on the Queensboro Bridge?" she asked over the radio, surveying the wreckage around her.

"The remaining Covenant are retreating across the bridge Major" a voice said, "under a hail of gunfire too. All vehicles were told to not give chase."

"Casualties?" she questioned.

"Team Alpha, Team Delta and Team Beta have suffered two hundred and seventy three combined men. Two Scorpions and twenty two Warthogs."

"Roger that. Team Gamma what is your status?" she asked.

"All buildings on the southern side of the island cleared ma'am. It appears that Team Charlie has destroyed the immediate buildings on the northern side of the bridge. Suffered forty one casualties." the leader of Team Gamma reported.

"Understood. Team Charlie report" she snapped into the radio.

"This is Sergeant Parker ma'am. Covenant have swarmed down from the northern end and won't stop coming. Plenty of Ghost and Spectres to put us in a horrible position" the Sergeant frantically replied.

"Team Gamma and Team Delta, move forward to assist Team Charlie in stopping the attack. Then move up the island and take care of the rest of the Covenant" she ordered.

* * *

When this gets made into a movie I already have my cast picked out. Well not the whole cast, I mean there are extras and minor roles but I have the main characters picked out. At least the main characters you've met so far. And yes I know I'm fucked up.

Major Sasha Ivanova- Uma Thurman

Lance Corporal Christopher Benedetto- Ryan Reynolds

Private First Class Michael "Mikey" Cimino- Ewan McGregor

Private Dominique Russino- Keira Knightley

Captain Lewis- Sean Connery

Gunnery Sergeant Waller- Laurence Fishburne

Private Jake O'Brien- Topher Grace

Sergeant Parker- Will Smith

Master Chief- Brad Pitt

Cortana- Cameron Diaz

Sergeant Avery J. Johnson- Denzel Washington

Commander Miranda Keyes- Lindsay Lohan


	5. Myth Platoon

I made a mistake in Chapter One, Ten Days to Early. I meant to say Earth had three hundred Super MAC orbital platforms, not thirty.

First Halo- About 80 hours since the Pillar of Autumn exited slipspace to where Alpha Halo was blown up.

Second Halo- About 30 hours from when the Cairo comes under attack to when the Master Chief returns to Earth in the Forerunner ship. Since we switch back and forth between the Arbiter and Master Chief I figured the time line wouldn't be too long.

Chapter 4 Myth Platoon

**0843 Hours, October 28, 2552 (Military Calender)**

**Roosevelt Island, New York, United States of America, Earth.**

Chris whooped as the third Ghost in the past twenty minutes exploded in a cloud of plasma. That made is three Ghost, twelve Elites, a score of Jackals and about fifty Grunts. All killed as they tried reinforcing their comrades on the bridge.

When the Covenant from the north came down in their first wave, there was only eleven Warthogs left in Team Charlie. One of them had gotten stuck with a stray plasma grenade while guarding one of the off-ramps; the gunner was the only survivor. The main Covenant attack was focused on the west side of the island, on the narrow strip of land between the school and the coast.

During the battling Team Charlie had been whittled down to five Warthogs. Eight of the Warthogs were to repel the attackers on the westside while the last three made sure known got pass on the eastside of the school, where the soccer field was. Chris, Mikey and Dominique occupied the only Warthog left on the eastside and four others were left fighting on the westside.

The constant fire of two M41 LAAG machine gun, the explosions of a three-barreled SC-HE rocket launcher and the 'ksh' of the high caliber slugs being shot out of the remaining gauss cannon, let him know that the Covenant was still being repelled on that side.

The siding of their Warthog was basically gone. The windshield was nothing more then a melted blob of bulletproof plexiglass. The machine-gun in the back was so warped that soon it wouldn't be able to fire. The front left tire wasn't a circle anymore, more like a lumpy oval. Chris's left shoulder armor wasn't there anymore. It had been hit so many times by plasma that most of it had fizzled away, and some of it had melted against the shoulder of the thick shirt underneath the armor, burning his skin below it.

Mikey appeared to be alright, though Chris knew his hands were probably blistered and burned from holding onto the hot metal. His leg armor also appeared to be a little warped, but nothing as serious as Chris's shoulder.

Dominique barely got hit with any plasma at all. Subconsciously Chris had made sure that the side of the Warthog that was getting shot, was more often then not, not Dominique's side. He had been raised to be a gentleman and he thought preventing a woman from getting shot with plasma was very gentleman indeed. Unfortunately Private Russino didn't like it, because on several occasions she yelled at him for doing so.

"We've got another squad of Covies moving in" Mikey shouted. He pointed behind Chris and Dominique, to the far side of the soccer field where an Elite, three Jackals and four Grunts marched towards the bridge. Chris turned the wheel as far as he could and stepped on the gas. The Warthog did a quick one-eighty, tilting towards the passenger side. He pressed harder on the pedal and the Warthog soared towards the eight Covenant soldiers.

The machine-gun on the back came to life, as Mikey let loose on them. The Elite jumped out of the way of the bullets and the three Jackals raised their shields. One of the Grunts was directly behind the Jackals, and was protected from the bullets. The other three Grunts were riddled with bullets, falling to the ground dead.

The remaining Covenant opened fire upon the already damaged Warthog. Plasma hit the twisted hood, getting rid of it even faster. A shot of plasma hit between Chris and Dominique, scaring Chris enough to jerk the wheel to the left. Mikey took care of the Elite, who had no permanent protection like the Jackals and the Grunt hiding behind them.

Chris turned the Warthog back towards the group of Jackals and drove right at them. More plasma splashed against the hood, a few flying over Chris's head. Suddenly the Warthog made a spluttering sound and started to rapidly slow down. They reached the Jackals, going half the speed they were originally doing. Two of the Jackals jumped out of the way but the other one and the Grunt got splattered by the warped looking vehicle. Mikey and Dominique were able to put bullets into the unprotected sides of the Jackals before they could raise their shields.

"They hit the engine" he stated. None of them had a long range weapon to help hold off any more advancing Covenant. "Sergeant Parker, this is Lance Corporal Benedetto, do you read me?" he asked into the radio.

"Make this quick Marine" Sergeant Parker yelled over the thunder of gunfire.

"Our Warthog is dead. Just the three of us and our assault rifles left" he stated.

"We can't help you son. We're being over run here. You'll have to do the best you can" the Sergeant exclaimed. Chris sighed heavily before turning to the other two.

"Mikey stay on the turret and point it northward.. Me and Dominique will be between your eight and nine so don't fire past your ten got it?" Chris asked.

"Got it" Mikey replied. Both Chris and Dominique unstrapped themselves from their seats and jumped out of the Warthog. The blown up remains of one of the Ghost rested on the soccer field, close to the road. Its right wing was destroyed and it was rested on the right side. It was the best amount of cover around.

* * *

**0619 Hours, October 28, 2552 (Military Calender)**

**Bridge of the UNSC destroyer, the _Aztec_; outside Earth's atmosphere **

The last of the Pelicans arrived in _Aztec_'s hangar, its troops and vehicles unloaded. The jump in slipspace to the bright side of Earth, on the opposite side of the battle, had damaged the machines that made slipspace possible. Normally that wouldn't be so but it had been damaged in the battle by Chiron, just not enough to concern the technicians. That left them with an engine running at forty-three percent, seven Archer missile pods and several squadrons of Longswords as there only means of defense.

"Plato, get every tech on this ship to start fixing the MAC guns. Get any crew member not doing anything to the two armories to collect any weapons they can. Tell all crew members to get to either the hangar, the bridge, engineering or the MAC gun control rooms. After everyone is where I want them to be, I want you to lock down every blast door, leave only one path connecting each of the rooms to each other." The reason he did that was easy. They were sitting ducks out here. Herding most of the crew towards the hangar would insure that many of them could escape before the ship was destroyed. Locking all blast doors besides a few, meant that if they were boarded, the Covenant would have a hard time getting to any humans.

"Sir, we have a UNSC ship trying to communicate with us sir." Ensign Leery proclaimed.

"Well, patch them through" Lewis snapped.

"Captain Lewis, this is Lieutenant Junior Grade Karl Smith of the UNSC Refit Station _Workbench._ We're stationed at the UNSC base _Ice Castle_ and wondering if you want us to come and give you a repair"

He thought about it. _Ice Castle _was the UNSC base in Antarctica, it had several docking stations, about two hundred stories from the ground, situated in the middle of it. As far as he knew _Workbench_ was a relatively small refit station, no where near the size of the_ Cradle_. It could refit only two starships at a time.

"What would be your ETA to get to my position?" he asked.

"Quickly sir, very quickly" the Lieutenant Junior Grade answered.

"Get up here then and do the best you can in two hours, after that you'll be pulling out" the Captain ordered.

"Yes Captain." With a start Captain Lewis realized that the _Workbench_ was already by them. It maneuvered itself above the badly damaged _Aztec_. The UNSC destroyer rocked slightly as it was docked to the larger refit station.

The _Workbench_'s AI appeared in the holotank The AI took the image of a grimy looking man with a construction hat on, and a racket in his left hand. "In the two hour of time you gave us we should be able to repair the hull breaches on all damaged levels, as well as reinforce the bottom of the ship. One of the MAC guns should be fixed as well. Hopefully we'll be able to load some Archer missiles in what ever pods you have left that haven't been destroyed." the AI explained.

Refit stations could make dozens of repairs to ships. They could reseal hull breaches, reload Archer missiles pods, repair MAC guns and replace burned or broken parts of the ship, like electronic parts, coolant systems and superconducting magnets. His technicians were working on those MAC guns but they could use the help. Hopefully they'd be able to repair the engine enough so that it could reach higher then forty-three percent.

He looked out over the screen, to the green and blue planet below. The _Aztec_ was only six hundred miles above Earth's surface, and was right above northeastern United States. Below him he could see all of Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and New Jersey. He could see most of New York, more then half of Maine and Pennsylvania and some of Canada. He could also make out, just barely mind you, the Covenant carrier. Just a small purple strip covering up a small piece of Long Island's southern fork.

Reports continuously filtered in about the battles above the surface and on it. A Covenant supercarrier was stationed above New Mombasa, Kenya. Two Frigate were above Sydney, Australia and two were above Songnam, Korea. Over forty thousand Covenant soldiers now occupied Long Island. Thirty thousand or so were in New Mombasa and about twenty-five thousand each occupied Sydney and Songnam. Songnam and Sydney appeared to be planned, the Covenant appeared to know that Sydney was a UNSC headquarters and that Songnam was a large war industry area. The other two were either distractions or force landings of damaged ships. There were other battles going on, on Earth, but compared to the other four, they were more like small firefights. Covenant Phantoms and Apparitions had landed all over the world. Not only were Earth's army sent to handle them but local police had to be the main line of defense and were asked to distract the Covenant for as long as they could before the Army showed up.

It appeared that the battle for Chiron had ended, and the Mars base was now in the hands of the Covenant. Forty-one Covenant ships have either been destroyed or forced from the fight. Which meant the ratio for UNSC and Covenant ships taken out of battle during the fight was 25:41. That also meant that the UNSC was finding better ways of fighting the Covenant. The _Atom_ had jumped into slipspace, with no weapons left it used the last of its power to flee the battle. The other ships had been destroyed, along with the thirty Super MAC orbital guns. No communication could be established with the Marines on ground side and all six-hundred and fifty men, including Lieutenant General Moretti, were assumed dead.

The main Covenant fleet was pulling back from battle, after suffering over three hundred and fifty casualties. However, the damage was done. Intercepted transmissions showed a new Covenant fleet inbound to reinforce the original one, and to resume the attack on Earth in three or four hours. The starships defended Earth had been cut down to ninety-four. The Super MAC orbital stations knocked down to a little over two hundred. Every refit station was deployed to frantically repair the wounded ships.

The building of a new UNSC starship, one that had been in process already, was renewed, with double the amount of workers then before. The ship was supposedly ninety-percent done, and would hopefully be done before the Covenant arrived again. All it really needed was it weapons operational and its engine to work properly. One ship didn't seem like it would make much of a difference but he was told it was a ship with an upgraded hull and some new prototype weapons.

Suddenly five Longsword Interceptors and a Albatross Transport raced across the screen. Except they didn't look like regular Longswords. These ones were smaller in wingsize, maybe by ten feet or so. This was due to the fact that their wings were at a smaller angle then regular ones. It main weapons appeared to be bigger then the 110mm rotary cannons, maybe 120mm or even 130mm. They also appeared to glow faintly, letting off a small silverish glow and with a start Captain Lewis realized that they had shields.

The six ships flew down to Earth, heading right for the battle on Long Island. "Where the hell did those things come from?" he yelled to no one in particular.

"It appears they came from Mars sir, but not from Chiron. Jumped into slipspace as the last UNSC ship over there was destroyed." Chief Petty Officer Jones stated. "It appears there was another UNSC installation on Mars sir, just not one we knew about"

The captain nodded though he was still confused. Another base? And why was he not aware of it, after all he had been assigned to Chiron a year ago. And the Albatross Transport having a slipspace generator?

"What is the status on those repairs Plato?" He asked. Instead of Plato answering, the _Workbench_'s AI answered him.

"Archer missile pods A through H are being refilled now. We managed to weld three-quarters of a meter of plating over the bottom of the ship, reinforcing the half a meter already there. The hull breaches have all been reinforced with a meter of plating. The repair of the MAC gun is still in progress, but should be done in the next ten minutes. We even managed to work on your engines. You should be able to achieve sixty-four percent efficiency"

Lewis looked at his watch. It had taken them one hour, forty-eight minutes and thirteen seconds to do all that. Impressive. Very Impressive.

"Plato, what of our boys down there. How are they holding up?"

Plato appeared in the holotank. "Judging from all the communication going on down there it appears they have taken the bridge, but are still having problems with the rest of the island. Since the HEV with the AI was destroyed by a plasma torpedo there defense systems will not be as effective with holding the bridge"

"What about that Class-B AI we use to have on this ship? What did they do with it when they put you in?" Captain Lewis asked. They had gotten Plato, a Class-A smart AI a month ago, upgrading from their Class-B dumb AI.

"It is in storage sir. Near engineering." With all the AI's around, many were left unused. One of the thing the humans did better then the Covenant was the creation of AIs. Unfortunately, they couldn't turn the tide of battles in space. And soon the supply exceeded the demand, because for some reason UNSC insisted on creating new ones when they already had enough to handle the remaining ships in the UNSC fleet nine times over. So many of the lower class AIs were put in storage.

"Send someone to get it and send it down to the surface then. No use having it collect dust in storage"

* * *

**1015 Hours, October 28, 2552 (Military Calender)**

**Queensboro Bridge, Roosevelt Island, New York, United States of America, Earth**

"Listen to me you idiots, I said place that autocannon on the southside, you know, the opposite side from the one ALL READY SET UP ON THE NORTHSIDE!" Major Ivanova yelled. The ten Marines carrying the MLA Autocannon quickly scurried to the designated spot. The U.S. Army was really packing some good defensive weapons.

Not only did they have two MLA Autocannons, usually mounted on starships and fightercraft fighters, but they also had several SAMs set up with Anaconda SAM Missiles. That would insure that no Covenant fightercrafts of dropships took them out.

They had several standard M247 GP Machine Guns set up, aimed towards Long Island and the Covenant there. Hell they even had a, 110mm rotary cannon turret, something used by Longswords to punch holes through Seraphs. The Scorpion and several of the Warthogs were also placed to guard from Covenant attack down the bridge.

A quarter of the way down the bridge, on both the northern and southern sidewalks, were Marine positions. The Marines were protected by several combat barriers, not much against heavy fire, but enough to withstand the guns and turrets of Ghosts, Spectres and Shadows. Seven Marines hid behind each of the two barriers. Two of the seven carried rocket launchers and two of the seven carried snipers. Not much, more of a scouting position really.

"Major! Captain Lewis is sending us a Class-B dumb AI to help us out down here" Gunnery Sergeant Waller said. He was sitting to her left with the surface-to-space radio in his lap.

"What is its purpose?" she asked as she walked over to him. She didn't want to get stuck with some dumb AI that was suppose to be used for agricultural shit.

"Battle ma'am, its main focus is starship battles but it also knows a good amount about ground tactics and the like" the Gunnery Sergeant answered.

She nodded her head. It was good to know she wasn't getting stuck with a soil loving AI.

Suddenly five Longswords came soaring from out of the clouds, the sound of their engines, a lot softer then usual Longswords, catching up to the five fightercrafts. The five crafts stopped at a hover above Roosevelt Island. "This is Phoenix One of the UNSC Phoenix Alpha Flight. We're escorting an Albatross Transport loaded with additional troops. Where do you want it to land ma'am? There doesn't seem to be a forward command post down there" A deep males voice crackled over the radio.

"We don't have a forward command post yet Phoenix One. We're still planning on how to get across this damn bridge" she answered. The line was silent for a minute or so.

"Ma'am, requesting permission to set up a forward command post, ma'am" Phoenix One stated.

"And exactly where are you going to set it up Airman?" she asked, an eyebrow raised, though she was sure Phoenix One couldn't see it.

"Do you see that white building across the bridge ma'am, about ten stories high" She looked across the bridge and immediately spotted the building the Longsword pilot was talking about. It was a one of the taller buildings in the area,

"I see it" she answered.

"That's where ma'am. And don't worry about those Covenant anti-air weapons. We'll handle it" Phoenix One definitely sounded sure of himself.

"As long as you guys are sure you can handle it." No response answered her and she took that as a positive gesture. "Get to it then. And hurry the hell up. I wanted that forward command post fifteen minutes ago!"

* * *

**1045 Hours, October 28, 2552 (Military Calender) **

**Albatross Transport, Above Queens, New York, United States of America, Earth **

Sergeant Nathan Tooles was once a member of the legendary Helljumpers, the ODST's, hell the UNSC's best unit, well besides those Spartan freaks. However four years ago he was transferred to another unit, a better unit. At thirty years old he was recommended to this assignment by Colonel James Ackerson, a friend of his father. That wasn't to say he wasn't qualified, after all being in the ODST meant you were one of the best.

After years of training, testing out new designs and fixing prototypes, Project Myth was deemed a success. They only ever endured field test, so they didn't know what the soldiers could do in real combat, but what better way to find out then to send them off to battle. If the original unit was a success then ONI was going to fund the creation of more.

Two of the three units of the Myth projects had technology that was a combination of the greatest from both worlds, Human and Covenant. Test in real-life combat situations weren't performed because the UNSC couldn't spare any troops to practice with, but all other test had been passed with flying colors. Each of the units in the Myth group was named after fantasy beast from old, back when Earth was the only planet man inhabited on and man still fought with swords. The Minotaurs, Nemean Lions and Centaurs were the second best group of soldiers the UNSC ever produced. Since Spartans took so long to create, and mold into the perfect soldier, the Myth units would be the main force against the Covenant.

The idea for the Minotaurs came from the Hunters, who could decimate squads of Marines with their heavy armor and powerful guns. The Minotaurs were five gigantic exoskeleton like battle suits. The Minotaurs were four meters tall, two meters wide and two meters long. Most of it was a foot and a half of Titanium-A plating which protected not only the suit's pilot, but also all the delicate technology inside the suit.

The left and right hands of the suit were 12.7mm three-barreled M41 LAAG machine-guns, the same type that sat on a standard Warthog. The ammo for the M41 LAAG was stored in a giant metal box that could hold one thousand rounds. The suit could carry four spare boxes of ammo and two clipped into the separate guns. When a case was empty, the pilot pressed a button and the case fell from the gun. Then a new one came out of the side of the suit and slid into place.

The top half of the Minotaur, the torso, could spin around in a full circle while the lower half, the legs, stayed stationary. There really was no front and back to the Minotaur. The short and stubby legs could walk in a straight line from one point to another and back at the same speed without having to turn around. Since the top half could rotate, whatever way that was facing was designated "front" Some thrusters were located on the back of the torso. They were used to propel the Minotaur upwards a height of five meters and forwards a distance ranging from five to ten meters, depending how fast the Minotaur was already moving. The maximum speed reached by the Minotaur was twenty-four kilometers per hour (roughly fifteen miles per hour).

The type of shield the Elites and Spartans had over there armor was around the Minotaur, just not as durable as the other twos. The shield ran on power, which it drew from a plasmic generator combined with a fusion core stored underneath the Titanium-A plating of the suit. Without taking any fire, the shield could last for two days. However with a constant barrage of assault rifle fire, the shield only held for six hours and three minutes.

There was another plasmic generator-fusion core combo stored in the suit, to power the motion of the suit; walking and the rotation of the upper half. It was possible to drain energy from one generator to help power the other one, incase the shield failed and they were under heavy attack, or if the motion failed and they needed to get the hell out of there.

The next group in the Myth Platoon was the Centaurs. The ten Centaurs wore modified ODST armor. The Centaur armor was not multi-gray and black, it was black and dark red. The armor had several small thrusters integrated into it. These allowed the Centaurs to jump fifteen meters high, and gave them greater mobility on the battlefield. The Centaurs were also equipped with a spinoff of the Jackal's personal arm shield. It was a lot larger and shaped like an old Roman shield, curved to fit around the body. The shield was carried on the left forearm and was six feet high.

To compensate for the fact that they couldn't wield two handed weapons while using the shield, the Centaurs were given modified M6 pistols. These pistols, variant M6F PS, came with a thick, half a foot long barrel and elongated magazine that carried twenty-five16.3x50mm rounds, and weighed five times more then a Magnum. It could also carry a standard M6D HE Pistol magazine of twelves rounds, incase the soldiers ever needed extra ammo. When not using the shield, mostly from far distances, the Centaurs used BR55 Battle Rifles.

The Centaurs were also given a diamond nightstick encased in a small, dense shield. The shield allowed the nightstick to handle a blow from a plasma sword, and the solid diamond nightstick could naturally handle two blows from a plasma sword before melting. This gave the Centaur four shots against an Elite wielding a plasma sword and a chance to fight these Elites at close range.

Centaurs speed varied with the Marine that was the Centaur. But none of them ran under twenty-four kilometers per hour (a little less then fifteen miles per hour). The fastest of them could reach a speed of forty kilometers per hour (about twenty-five miles per hour).

Finally there were the Nemean Lions. The Nemean Lions, or Leos for short, wore special made armor coated with a layer of diamond.(1) The metal of the special armor, Tungsten, was extremely strong at high temperatures, making the metal itself strong enough to handle a couple of plasma shots. Covered with a layer of diamond and the armor could even handle a charged plasma pistol shot. The pieces of the armor had to be attached to the body separately. For example the chest piece had to be attached after the bicep guards, which went on after the gauntlets were attached.

The only problem was, Tungsten is the third heaviest metal known to man, and the suits weighed over three hundred pounds. The inside was cushioned with tempur material and gel to limit and cushion the damage sustained from physical blows. A coolant system was inside so the user wouldn't suffer from any heat-illnesses.

The Orbital Drop Shock Troopers picked to wear these suits had to undergo two of the augmentations the Spartan-II went under; carbide ceramic ossification (stronger bones) and muscular enhancement injections. This was done so they would be able to carry the weight of the armor easier. Since they only underwent two of the augmentations, and the process had been improved upon, only three out of the fifteen ODSTs died.

The suits were praised to be better then MJOLNIR Mark V armor but they didn't compare. The MJOLNIR armor was made to not only handle punishment, but also for speed and agility. Those were two things the Leo armor could never achieve. All it could do was take a good amount of punishment. MAC rounds were made with tungsten, so the rounds could withstand the heat of being projected at extreme speeds from the MAC gun. In fact, a shipyard on Earth was making a UNSC carrier based on the Leo armor, with the Tungsten and diamond plating.

The speed of the Leos depended on the Marine who wore the armor, however the fastest one could run at seventeen and three-quarters kilometers per hour (about eleven miles per hour) and the slowest could run at thirteen kilometers per hour (eight miles per hour). The weapons of the Leo's varies with the member.

Leo One, Leo Two and Leo Three were all equipped with MA5B Assault Rifles as their main weapons, M6D HE Pistols for sidearms and M90 Shotguns as a secondary weapon. Leo Four carried a brace-mounted M247, dual M7/caseless Sub-Machine Guns and a M7057 Defoliant Projector. Leo Five carried a SRCS99C-S2 AM Sniper Rifle, a M6D HE Pistol for a sidearm and instead of a secondary weapon Leo five carried the teams Advanced Medkits, which stored more then just bandages, painkillers and biofoam. Leo Six and Leo Seven were each equipped with a BR55 Battle Rifle for primary, one M7/caseless Sub-Machine Gun as a sidearm and a M19 SSM Rocket Launcher. Leo Eight and Leo Nine had BR55 Battle Rifles, M6D HE Pistols and M90 Shotguns. Finally Leo Ten, Leo Elven and Leo Twelve all carried MA5B Assault Rifles, dual M7/caseless Sub-Machine Guns and the demolition equipment (Lotus AT mines, satchel charges, Type 14 M/AT mine, Antilon Anti-Personnel Mine, C-12 shaped-charges, C-7 foaming explosives, HAVOK Nuclear Warhead).

That made twenty-seven members of Myth Platoon and all of them were deadly in there own right.

Nathan was a Centaur, the mobile force of the team. The shield provided for him was three inches higher then he was, which made him five-foot and nine inches. He had buzzed blond hair and multiple scars littering his face and arms.

"We're landing in one minute. Get your shields up Centaurs" Captain Phillip Rodriguez, Minotaur One and highest ranking officer of the Myth Platoon yelled.

Nathan reached for the shield generator strapped on his wrist and pressed the bright green button. The red translucent shield came into existence inches from his face. He also withdrew the heavy pistol from his hip, checking the chamber and making sure a round was in there and ready to be shot.

"Coming down soft, twenty-five seconds till we land" Twenty-five seconds later, and the transport stopped moving.

"We landed? Wow. Which we could land that softly all the time" one of the Leos quipped.

"Time to show these Covies there newest ass-kickers" The Captain shouted as the three walls of the back of the Albatross Transport fell open.

* * *

**0820 Hours, October 28, 2552 (Military Calender)**

**Sub-Level 27, UNSC Headquarters Reach, Sydney, Australia, Earth**

Colonel James Ackerson sat quietly in his office, staring at the screen in front of him. Words and numbers flashed across the screen, forming words and codes.

One of Halsey's Spartan IIs had discovered the ring like object by Threshold. The Spartan had then discovered its purpose and everything about the object they could possibly learn. Another way Halsey had bested him. ONI had discovered two of these ring like objects in the past five years. Just a year ago he had been given the green light to send a battalion of one-thousand of his NavSpecWar soldiers to investigate the other Halo, Delta Halo.

When the Master Chief returned and told everyone everything he learned, he had called back his team. He was desperate to win the war, and to gain the glory for it, but jeopardizing the whole Milky Way Galaxy was beyond even him. No matter how hard he tried Halsey's freaks seemed to outdo him at every turn.

The Spartan IIIs, the third phase of Halsey's Spartan Project, were far away at other Inner Colonies, defending them against the Covenant, though some of them were probably being withdrawn to fight the Covenant at Earth.

This time over three hundred kids had been chosen for the project. The Spartan IIIs were started sixteen years ago, when the Inner Colonies started to come under attack. The augmentations had taken out a third of the candidates, leaving them with only two hundred battle capable super soldiers. After three years of fighting one-hundred and fifty-seven Spartan IIIs remained.

Spartan IIIs were every bit as popular as the Spartan IIs. They might not have had the same amount of accomplishments but the newer Spartans were only twenty-two years old, the older Spartans forty-seven.

Not only did he have Halsey's two groups of Spartans to deal with, though the first group only had five members left, but he also had to deal with Major Wolfe's Project Myth. Supposedly if all went well and Earth repelled this invasion, then Myth unit suits and exoskeletons would be produced in the hundreds, maybe even thousands.

He had several other projects, other then the NavSpecWar. For instance the NOVA was his most recent creation, and was at the moment, being equipped to the _Titan_, the first in the newest model UNSC carrier; _Rhino_-carrier. The _Titan_ also included another of his new weapons, the FSE, which stood for Focusing Star Energy.

He got the idea from his nephew, who enjoyed burning ants with a magnifying glass. It was such a simple idea, something that should of been thought of hundreds of years ago. The FSE was basically a large magnifying glass that focused the energy from a star into a thin, narrow beam. This thin beam, containing so much energy in such a narrow space, is extremely powerful and can burn a hole through most metals. He just hoped it worked, it worked on Covenant shields, they just had no clue about the metal the Covenant used.

The ground shook again as more explosions peppered the surface. The Marines and Helljumpers were doing a good job of holding of the Covenant ground forces. As far as he knew, he had nothing to worry about from the alien bastards.

"Attila, what is the status of Earth's orbital defense?" he asked. His personal AI popped into view in front of him.

"Ninety four UNSC ships are still combat functional. This includes one supercarrier, eight carriers, twenty-nine cruisers, forty-one destroyers, eleven frigates and four corvettes. Two hundred and thirteen Super MAC orbital platforms are still operational. Chiron has fallen but Ra is still operational. The original Covenant fleet contains only one hundred and thirty-eight ships left. They have retreated to just behind Mars where they await additional reinforcements, estimated anywhere from three to four hundred." Attila explained, in its deep, hoarse voice.

"And what of the ground forces?" he asked.

"They've just begun to push the Covenant back on Long Island, I have reports that the Myth Platoon has been deployed there." Attila knew that Colonel Ackerson wanted to know anything he could on his rivals projects. "New Mombasa has several UNSC held zones that are spreading outwards, the most notable beings assisted by Spartan-117. Songnam is planning a encirclement attack on the Covenant line, odds are forty-two percent chances it will succeed. The UNSC forces above us are holding their ground but have orders to not move from their positions"

"Attila, alert the _Mach I, Mach II, Mach III _and the _Mach IV _to pick up all NavSpecWar soldiers in the Sagittarius Dwarf galaxy.(1) Tell the crew of the _Mach V _to be ready for dust off. I want to leave here in the next two hours. Alert Master Sergeant Winters to get his men aboard the _Mach V _" The _Mach_ frigates were his personal starships. Though it would most likely be declined by Highcom, he had a new mission to embark on and he wouldn't allow them to stop him.

* * *

(1) As of right now that is the second closest galaxy to us at about 70,000 light years away. The Canis Major dwarf galaxy is 25,000 light years away from us. It is that close because part of it is currently IN the Milky Way Galaxy. The stars in this galaxy are currently being pulled into the gravitation of our galaxy and some time in the future the Canis Major dwarf galaxy will no longer exist. The same thing is happening to the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy, but it will take longer. Both galaxies have been ripped apart by the Milky Way for billions of years already. I'm saying by 2552 scientist will no longer consider Canis Major dwarf galaxy a separate galaxy but part of the Milky Way, even though it hasn't fully been integrated into the larger spiral galaxy.

Humans have migrated out to other planets in a circle, not a triangle. Since the Sol system is toward the edge of the Milky Way galaxy, it is obvious that they haven't just stayed in the Milky Way, but spread out to the closest neighboring galaxy. They only occupy a handful of planets in the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy because they haven't expanded to far into it. Since the Covenant are on the other side of the Milky Way galaxy from Earth, they haven't reach the human held planets in the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy yet.


	6. Battle for Earth’s Orbit

I would like to address a mistake in my last chapter. I said there were five Spartans IIs left. But in reality there are eight. In the Fall of Reach it says, "...save three, who are otherwise engaged on fields of combat too distant to be easily recalled," as John talks about the Spartans being recalled to Reach for the mission of capturing a Covenant ship. Therefor there are John, Kelly, Linda, Will, Frederic and three unknown Spartans. Plus there are several whose death's are a little foggy, so there could be more. Right now though we have eight confirmed alive.

Chapter 5 Battle for Earth's Orbit

**1000 Hours, October 28, 2552 (Military Calender) **

**Roosevelt Island, New York, United States of America, Earth **

"Chris I got some Covenant moving in. At least I think they're Covenant. Four unidentified species. It looks like a giant guerilla" Mikey said.

"Roger that. If they aren't human then engage in combat." Chris replied. Chris could just make out the outline of the four creatures Mikey was talking about. They continuously got closer to Mikey's location until the ODST opened fire on them. The 12.7mm bullets collided with the body of one of the new Covenant.

Roars of rage spilt from the other's throats. Plasma, this one colored red instead of the blue of a plasma rifle or the green of a plasma pistol, flew towards Mikey. The three ape-like beings worked there way over to Mikey, slowly. It appeared they could take a bigger beating then any of the other Covenant creatures.

When only one was left, it threw its weapon on the ground and charge at the stationary Warthog on all fours. The bullets hitting it didn't seem to have any effect on the charging beast. In only ten seconds it was on Mikey, letting out an animalistic yell. The beast shouldered the Warthog, sending the thing toppling over, Mikey with it.

Chris didn't remember when he left the cover of the destroyed Ghost, all he knew was he had to get to Mikey before this brute of a creature destroyed him. It had flipped the Warthog again and Chris couldn't see Mikey anywhere. He let out several burst of his machine gun, punching more holes in the creatures hide.

It turned towards him, a look of savage hate on its face. It started to charge him and he started to back pedal. It got close enough where he could spray the assault riffle and not miss a shot. The thing raised its fist, preparing to strike him when suddenly one of its eyes seemed to explode in a shower of blood. It fell to the ground, stopping centimeters from Chris's feet.

Chris looked over his shoulder and saw Dominique with a smoking M6D HE Pistol in her hands. He nodded his thanks before hurrying to the Warthog, which was upside down. Mikey lay underneath the machine-gun, which hovered an inch or two over his body. His arm was out of its socket and he appeared to be knocked out.

With Dominique's help they dragged the ODST out from under the vehicle. Chris then crawled underneath and grabbed the radio. "Sergeant Parker, this is Lance Corporal Benedetto. The eastside will fall in the next attack, I repeat the eastside will fall under the next attack."

"Lance Corporal Benedetto this is Gunnery Sergeant Waller, sit tight. Teams Gamma and Delta are moving towards you now" the tough voice of his superior ODST officer was a welcomed sign.

"Roger that sir. I would just like to tell you we have encountered a new species of Covenant." Chris stated into the communications device.

"Please repeat what you just said" the Gunnery Sergeant asked.

"A new species of Covenant sir. Guerilla like in appearance and can take a hell of a lot of bullets before going down" Chris answered.

"Roger that, we'll have to alert Highcom about this" Waller sounded nervous, worried and fearful at the new revelation. And he knew how the man felt. The four species that consisted of the Covenant soldiers were hard enough to beat, add another and they were screwed.

* * *

**1115 Hours, October 28, 2552 (Military Calender) **

**Roof of Queens Financial, Queens, New York, United States of America, Earth **

Nathan Tooles stood shoulder to shoulder with two other Centaurs. They would be moving down the staircase, with three Centaurs taking the point. Their shields layered against each other to prevent any plasma shots from getting through the transparent red wall. Their pistols pointing through a small hole in the shield, only big enough for the barrel of the pistol. The rest of the Centaurs and the Leos would follow after them.

The Minotaurs, unable to go down the stairs, were to grapple down to the ground and clear out that floor. They were then to hold off any Covenant that tried running or tried assisting their comrades.

The three point Centaurs moved down the steps in synch with each other, one step at a time. Two blue Elites appeared around the corner, their plasma pistol still at their hips. Six muffled shots echoed throughout the staircase as three bullets hit each one of the Elites.

The purple blood of the Elites leaked from the bullet holes in their necks. They were probably sent to the roof to see what that soft thud was. Since they didn't have their weapons in their hands, the thud on the roof wasn't deemed a potential threat.

They finished walking down the stairs they were on to a landing. The landing had a door with a sign reading "Tenth Floor" in bright red colors.

"Leo Three and Leo Four cover the staircase, make sure no Covies sneak up on us" Sergeant Major Lowell, second in command and Centaur One, ordered. The two Leos nodded their heads before moving off to cover the stairs leading down to the ninth floor and all the other floors below them. "Centaurs Eight, Nine and Ten take point again"

Nathan and the two Centaurs at his side moved towards the door. One of the Leos stood on the side of the doorway and reached for the knob. The door was thrown open and Nathan was prepared to be bombarded with plasma. Such was not the case. They were in a large room full of dozens of cubicles with aisles crisscrossing throughout the room. Across from them was a large office with a glass wall, and to the left was an elevator door.

"Those cubicles will be a bitch to check" One of the Leos remarked from over Nathan's shoulder. He along with Centaur Ten and Centaur Eight maneuvered their way into the room. The rest of the team followed in after them.

One of the Centaurs walked to the closest cubicle and studied the wall that surrounded it. "It should be able to hold" he muttered, before lifting himself up onto the cubicle wall. The Centaur checked the cubicles around him before walking along the wall, looking into every cubicle he passed. Several other Centaurs joined him and they went through the process of clearing out the cubicles.

Occasionally one would yell "Got one" before their pistol would shoot a bullet or two. Once and a while plasma would collide with the Centaur shields but they held against the plasma.

By the time they were finished a couple of Jackals and a dozen Grunts littered several cubicles. The office with the glass wall was empty of any Covenant soldiers. The highlighted number above the elevator lift said the elevator was currently on the third floor.

"Centaurs Two, Three Four and Five and Leos Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven and Twelve will accompany me in the elevator. Centaurs Six, Seven, Eight, Nine and Ten along with Leos One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six and Seven will move down the staircase. Make sure you leave Leos Three and Four to cover the staircase" Sergeant Major Lowell commanded. "We'll go down one floor at a time"

Nathan moved off with the others going down the stairs. Leos Three and Four were where they left them. Three dead Grunts sat at the base of the staircase leading to the ninth floor.

"We're moving down floor by floor" Nathan told the two Leos. "You're to cover our asses all the way down" The two Leos nodded their heads before Leo Four picked up his brace-mounted M247.

Nathan made the little wall again with Centaurs Eight and Ten before moving down the stairs.

* * *

**1115 Hours, October 28, 2552 (Military Calender)**

**Bridge of the UNSC destroyer the _Aztec_, outside Earth's atmosphere **

"Captain Lewis" Ensign Leery yelled, "Fleet Admiral Miller request that the _Aztec_ move to coordinates zero-three-one. The Covenant are coming in for another attack. Four hundred strong sir and he wants all UNSC ships left in the area to be prepared for battle"

"You heard the Ensign, Chief Petty Officer Jones, move towards those coordinates immediately. Push the engines to thirty percent. Plato tell all Pelicans to leave the _Aztec_ and go to Earth, they won't be any use to us"

"Right away Captain" the AI responded.

"Engines at thirty percent sir. Moving towards the designated coordinates" Chief Petty Officer Jones stated.

"Ensign Williams warm up the MAC gun and prepare all Archer missiles" The Captain ordered.

"All ready done sir" Ensign Williams replied. "MAC gun at twenty-one percent and climbing at a rate of three percent per second"

"Tell all Longsword squadrons to be prepared for battle. We're giving the Covenant everything we've got" One of the other crew members relayed his message. "Ensign William arm the other two nukes we've got. Plato, set self-deletion sequence to be activated on designated code. Set _Aztec_'s self-destruct sequence to be initiated on my command" the AI set both sequences to be activated when the code and command were given.

"Arriving at coordinates in a minute sir" Chief Petty Officer Jones stated. The UNSC starships were set in defensive positions in front of the Super MAC orbital platforms, not where they would be hit by the MAC rounds of course.

Dozens of private yachts and merchant ships lined the sky as well. None of them would be able to do any real damage against the Covenant ships. The most they could hope for was to self-destruct right next to a Covenant ship. Some of the bigger merchant ships have been loaded with smaller MAC turrets. The crews of those ships were brave, idiots yes, but the bravest idiots he had ever seen.

"They'll be massacred" Leery stated, staring at all the smaller vessels.

"But they can take out a couple ships" Captain Lewis pointed out.

"This is Captain Wagner of the UNSC _Titan_, construction is complete. We're coming up now to assist in the battle." a female voice echoed throughout the bridge.

"I hope that damn ship could do some damage" Captain Lewis growled out.

Plato appeared in the holotank, he looked like he was examining something. "The _Titans_ hull is made out of two meters of Tungsten and a foot of diamond. Strange combination but it looks like it can handle one or two plasma torpedoes. I don't know exactly what a FSE can do but in theory it should be able to do a lot of damage. Same thing with these three NOVA's they have onboard. Three MAC guns, seventy Archer missile pods and ten squadrons of Longsword interceptors. Not even closest to the fastest ship we have but it can dish out a lot of punishment"

"Maybe that ship can help tip the scales of this battle after all" Captain Lewis said, a hint of hope in his voice.

"Be aware, Covenant five hundred kilometers; out of range of Super MAC orbital platforms but we are in range of the flagship they have" Plato calmly stated. At the distance they were at the Covenant ships looked like toys a five year old boy would have.

Several blue beams streaked across the sky and cut three frigates to pieces. A golden beam of light came flying from the UNSC side, straight for the Covenant flagship. The whole crew looked on in wonder as the gold beam, originating from the _Titan, _destroyed the flagships shield and burned a hole from nose to stern. It started to move around in a random motion, cutting through the flagship like a hot knife through already melting butter.

With the flagship destroyed the rest of the Covenant fleet started to move forward. The smaller human fleet waited to pound the shit out of the Covenant fleet.

"Captain, the supercarrier _Ares_ is requesting control of our MAC rounds. There trying to coordinate a volley that will hopefully take out dozens of Covenant ships." Plato announced.

"Go ahead Plato" The AI nodded its head. Several seconds later hundreds of timers appeared on the screen, the _Aztec_'s slightly bolder then the rest. It appeared Fleet Admiral Miller was coordinating a MAC volley with the ships and the orbital platforms. There would be three volleys; one from the ships, one from half the orbital platforms and the last one from the second half of orbital platforms. There was a time period of ten seconds between each of the volleys. That was enough time for an AI to change the targets of most of the MAC rounds, incase a ship was already destroyed and they didn't want to waste a MAC round on an already destroyed ship.

By the time the Covenant got within range the first volley had already been shot. The _Aztec_ shuddered as its MAC round tore through space. When the rounds were half way there, the first half of the Super MAC orbital platforms fired. When the first volley crashed into the Covenant ship and the second volley was half way there, the third volley let loose its salvo.

By the time all three volleys hit, seventy-nine of the Covenant ships were utterly destroyed with thirteen others wounded. Several of the ships let loose all their Archer missiles, which streaked towards the Covenant line. The remaining Covenant ships were able to let lose plasma torpedoes which flew at the UNSC fleet.

"All forces, engage the enemy" Fleet Admiral Miller yelled over the com.

"Tell the Longswords to give them hell" he told Plato. The three squadrons of Longswords flew out of the hangar bay, joining the hundreds other already streaking towards the enemy. The private yachts and merchants ships moved forward with the Longswords.

Several Longswords and non-military ships (private yachts and merchant ships) weren't able to evade the flying plasma torpedoes and were obliterated. All of the UNSC ships tried some evasive maneuvers to avoid the plasma. Though you couldn't avoid the plasma, unless doing a Keyes' Loop type maneuver, you could still limit the damage by making it skim your ship then right out hitting it.

Half of the ships were destroyed in the barrage and several of the Super MAC orbital platforms blew up as well. The yachts and merchant ships were blowing up right and left, taking down only one or two Covenant ships between them all.

Unexpectedly the Longswords and other civilian ships in the Covenant formation started to pull back from them, hightailing it out of there.

"MAC gun is hot sir" Ensign Williams proclaimed.

"Prepare to fire" Lewis stated.

Suddenly the view screen dimmed considerably as the biggest explosion he had ever seen lit up the sky. It took several minutes before Captain Lewis could see again but when he did, his eyes were met with utter disbelief. At least fifteen ships had been destroyed in that explosion and the shields on several others had flickered and died.

"Aim for one of those unshielded ships and fire the MAC. Launch all archer missiles at it as well" Ensign Williams tapped furiously into his console. The _Aztec_ shuddered again as the MAC round flew from the ship. The remaining archer missiles flew towards the Covenant cruiser Ensign Williams had picked to be destroyed.

* * *

**1233 Hours, October 28, 2552 (Military Calender) **

**Longsword Interceptor 234-HLG45, outer space between Earth and Mars **

First Sergeant O'Reilly, call sign Lazy Eagle, of the Blue Knights Squadron, recently assigned to the UNSC _Rhino_-carrier the _Titan_, couldn't help but be nervous. He was carrying a container that held five, not one but five, nuclear warheads, a weapon designated NOVA. His assignment was simple, drop the container in the Covenant formation and get the hell out of there.

The other Longswords and the civilian vessels would be keeping the Covenant anti-fightercraft weapons busy while he dropped his load. His Longsword had even been given an upgrade, a less powerful version of a Covenant ship shield.

The rest of the Blue Knights and another squadron, the Dark Angels, had been assigned to make sure he didn't blow up, because if he blew up too soon, the nukes could very well destroy all of the UNSC ships.

He pushed the throttle as he zoomed between two enemy cruisers. Their anti-fightercraft turrets tried to hit him but between his speed and the sacrifices offered by the Blue Knights and Dark Angels, he came out unharmed. He was currently more towards the right of the Covenant formation, somewhere towards the back, but that didn't matter.

He pressed a button and the container was dropped. The large silver sphere sat there for several seconds before it started to crack.

"This is Lazy Eagle, the package has been dropped. All UNSC and human vessels are to leave the Covenant formation as fast as they can" He himself didn't leave, it would take too long for him to escape the blast radius. But his death wouldn't be a waste.

The container split in pieces as five large, metallic objects were released. Thrusters were activated on each of the warheads and they spread out, each going in a different direction. One of the nukes bumped into a Covenant frigate but then changed directions. When the nukes reached four miles away from where they originally deployed, which took several seconds, they started beeping and First Sergeant O'Reilly could see a red light blinking on one of them.

"You did a good job First Sergeant O'Reilly. Your name will be written in history for being one of the bravest men to ever live. God speed" Captain Wagner's soft voice filled his ears. Lazy Eagle stared at the picture of three kids that sat on his control panel.

A blinding white light lit up the sky and First Sergeant O'Reilly, father of three now-orphans, knew no more.

* * *

**1257 Hours, October 28, 2552 (Military Calender)**

**Bridge of UNSC carrier the _Titan_, in orbit around Earth**

Captain Wagner looked out into space as the five nukes that consisted of their third NOVA exploded. The Covenant formation was rocked as one of ONI's newest weapons were used against them.

"Petty Officer Second Class Su and Petty Officer First Class Koslov target three Covenant ships and hit them each with a MAC round. Petty Officer Koslov target that Covenant carrier with the FSE and cut it to pieces as well." she ordered. The two weapon commanders nodded their heads before completing their orders, taking out the four Covenant ships. The _Titan_'s weapons were so numerous that they had to be divided between two people. One controlled two of the MAC guns, half the archer missile pods, a standard nuke and one of the NOVAs. The other one controlled a MAC gun, the FSE, the other half of the archer missile pods, a standard nuke and a second of the NOVAs.

A Covenant carrier was currently manhandling two UNSC destroyers. The twenty or so ships left out of the UNSC fleet was trying to distract the Covenant from the Super MAC orbital platforms but weren't doing a good job, as the majority of the Covenant fleet flew past the UNSC starships. The Longswords, private yachts and merchant ships were nothing more then annoying flies to the Covenant ships. Only a few of them stopped to swat them out of their way.

Four cruisers turned towards the _Titan_, their plasma turrets glowing red. They had been promised they could withstand one or two plasma torpedoes, but four was another story. By the time the MAC guns and the FSE charged up again it would be too late.

A MAC round from one of the orbital platforms slammed into the ship on the edge of the formation, closest to the orbital platforms. The round rocked the cruiser some as its shields failed and the heavy tungsten projectile buried itself into the rear of the ship. The red glow of plasma stopped altogether and flashes of blue lit up the back of the ship. The MAC round had hit something critical.

The other three ships were still undeterred, letting lose their powerful plasma torpedoes. One of them crashed into the middle of the port side, the second one crashed into the nose and the third one skimmed the bottom of the hull.

Captain Wagner opened her brown eyes and looked around. She wasn't dead, not by a long shot. "Hermes, how is the hull holding up?" she asked the ships AI.

"The diamond is gone in a hundred foot radius from where the torpedoes impacted. Two feet of the tungsten plating is gone as well. Another torpedo in those areas will most likely breach several sections but we should be able to survive." Hermes stated.

"Good. When will the MACs and the FSE be ready to fire?" she looked at the two weapons officers.

"MACs one and two both at eighty percent and rising at five percent per second" Petty Officer Second Class Su replied.

"MAC three is ready ma'am and the FSE is at seventy percent, collecting energy at two percent per second" Petty Officer First Class Koslov answered.

"Su, fire both MAC rounds at the cruiser on our starboard side. Koslov, fire the other MAC and Archer missile pods 35-55 at the one in the middle. Fire the FSE at the one on our port side" she ordered.

"Yes ma'am" "You got it Captain" the two Petty Officer's responded.

The first cruiser lost it shield to the first MAC round slamming into it. The second MAC round hit the ship at its neck, the narrower part of the ship that separated the nose from the rest of the ship. It punched a hole clean through, from port to starboard, tearing the nose off of the ship.

The second Covenant cruiser lost its shield to a MAC round as well, along with a dent in its port side hull. The Archer missiles peppered the ship, creating large holes in it. All of the plasma turrets on the port side of the ship were destroyed from the barrage of explosions.

The last Covenant cruiser's shields were pounded by the narrow gold beam of light produced by the FSE. The beam took down the shields and went through the process of cutting the Covenant ship to pieces, starting with the plasma turrets. Since it wasn't at full power, only around seventy percent, it didn't last nearly as long.

"Hermes be prepared with our anti-fightercraft and boarding party weapons. You can expect large numbers of boarding crafts to be coming our way"

Before Hermes could respond Fleet Admiral Miller appeared on screen. "All UNSC ships left in the fleet around Earth. I want you to jump to slipspace and go to the Alamo military base in the Sagittarius Dwarf galaxy"

"You want us to retreat sir?" Captain Wagner asked.

"This is not a retreat, more like a tactical withdrawal. You guys can't win this fight and you'll be destroyed staying here. All available UNSC ships are gathering there. You'll be back to liberate Earth soon. In the meantime due to intercepted transmission we know the Covenant won't glass the planet because several Forerunner artifacts rest on its surface and they don't know where they are. Don't worry about Earth. Just do what I've said. Fleet Admiral Miller out"

"Captain..." Koslov trailed off.

"You heard the Admiral. Get us to that military base" the Captain snapped, her face an emotionless mask.

The _Titan_, the _Aztec_ and ten other UNSC ships fled the system, leaving the remaining forty-two Super MAC orbital platforms defenseless. The remaining Longswords fled to Earth, half their numbers being cut down as they fled.

The remaining Covenant suffered only a few more casualties before all of Earth's orbital defenses were gone. Total Covenant losses: 572 warships and an unknown number of personnel, estimated around 70,000. Total human losses: 331 UNSC starships, 300 Super MAC orbital platforms, 286 civilian vessels and 99,234 people.

* * *

**1430 Hours October 28, 2552 (military Calender)**

**Queens Financial, Queens, New York, United States of America, Earth**

The forward command post on Long Island, designated Alpha Base, was a bee hive of UNSC activity. The 120,000 United States Army, the 377 soldiers left from the Aztec and the twenty-seven soldiers from the Myth Platoon were moving around the area completing their assigned task.

News of the lost battle in space had hit everyone hard. Earth was at the mercy of the Covenant and only the artifacts of the Forerunners supposedly stored here would save it from being glassed. Ground forces still totaled around 7.8 millions soldiers. All civilians had been evacuated to a series of underground cities and bunkers built by the UNSC in secret for the past ten years. They were supposedly able to withstand the glassing of a planet and able to support itself when the atmosphere of the planet was destroyed. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you looked at it, they didn't know if this was actually true.

The Covenant were estimated to number around three million on Earth. News of a large, floating object had reached their ears and eyes. Highcom decided it was risky enough to send several Longswords to investigate and they returned with info that it appeared to be a large city, full of Covenant.

The Covenant assault carrier in New Mombasa jumped in the city, decimating the city. The _In Amber Clad, _a UNSC frigate had given chase. The Master Chief Spartan-117 was rumored to be on board. The other three Spartans on Earth were currently in Sydney, protecting the Highcom headquarters there.

The Class-B dumb AI given to them, Spartacus, was a big help in getting their defense system set up and working perfectly. The shorter buildings around their primary one were loaded with SAMs, while the Queens Financial building they took over had the two autocannons. Sandbags, combat barriers and instacrete bunkers had been set up in a large perimeter around the building. M247 mounted-turrets had been set up every couple of feet along the perimeter.

All in all it was a pretty good set up, considering they were under constant attack while setting it up. The Myth Platoon had proved invaluable in holding off the Covenant and clearing the surrounding area of the Covenant. Several outpost had been set up in areas cleared of the Covenant. They would warn of any Covenant movement they could see and would prove vital in preventing the Covenant from recapturing the five square miles or so of land they held on Long Island.

Major Ivanova was currently examining a holographic map of their battlefield, Long Island. Blue areas were designated as UNSC held zones and purple was designated Covenant held zones. UNSC soldiers had tracking chips placed in the bottom of their foot and all UNSC soldiers showed up as yellow blips on the map. When ever Covenant soldiers were detected, whether from a soldiers visual or from motion sensors, they showed up as red blips on the map. If an area was within a UNSC soldiers visual then she could zoom in on that area and see everything the soldier or soldiers saw.

They were in danger of being surrounded in a classic pincer movement. They were nothing but a pimple on Long Island and the Covenant could at anytime surround and pop them. She needed to push out at the sides and expand the eastern front. But with the vehicles they had it would be a hard time. One Scorpion Tank, twenty M12 LRV Warthogs, three M12G1 LAAV Warthogs, one M12A1 LAAV Warthog, forty Transport Warthogs and the only vehicle they had an abundance of, 100 Mongoose ATVs. Hardly the type of vehicles she would like to push back the Covenant with but it was what she had.

She had sent several scouting parties to the north and the south and was waiting for them to report. Several soldiers had been tasked with keeping the supply line open behind them, not a hard task considering the bulk of their forces were guarding the only road the supply line could travel on. However, when they moved further down the island it would get harder and harder for them to hold the line open.

A hundred or so red blips appeared to the north, several larger then others, signifying vehicles. They weren't moving towards the blue portion of the map, meaning that one of her scouting parties had discovered the Covenant soldiers in Covenant controlled territory. The red blips became more numerous and soon the whole entire area north of the Northern Boulevard and west of Flushing Bay was filled with blips.

They were too numerous to count but if she had to guess it appeared to be around a thousand. She zoomed in on the area and examined the Covenant. They had Wraiths, mortar cannons and plasma turrets guarding every street. Ghosts and squads of grunts, elites, jackals and hunters patrolled the streets as well.

Warthogs were a lot better suited for street to street fighting, which gave the humans the biggest advantage in their home world. Since most cities and towns had large buildings in them it limited the areas a Wraith could fire upon without their plasma ball hitting something else first.

"Gunnery Sergeant Waller, I want you to load up ten of the M12 LRV Warthogs and one of the M12G1 LAAV Warthogs and send them to clean out coordinates 73, 57, 04.22 to 73, 51, 18.19, north of 40, 45, 14.64." she yelled over her shoulder.

The ODST commander looked up from the visual he was staring at. "Yes ma'am." he replied. The man got up from the chair he was sitting in, placed the screen he held in his hands down on a table and left the room.

"Major!" A U.S. army Corporal ran into the room. "Highcom has sent us some new presents ma'am. I think you might like them"

She looked at the new equipment sent in from Highcom. Forty Albatross Transports had landed down on Roosevelt Island and were currently unloading all the new things Highcom had sent. Not only did she get three hundred more Marines, ammo for the guns they already had, replacement armor and heavier weapons but she also got brand new vehicles and firearms.

Hundreds of crates full of ammo for the battle rifles, assault rifles, sniper rifles, rockets, sub machine-guns, shotguns and pistols as well as dozens of crates full of frags and heavy explosives were unloaded. They gave her a hundred more rocket launchers and several crates full of pistols, battle rifles and assault rifles. Marine and ODST armor pieces were available for those who had theirs burned off and needed replacements. Three more Scorpion tanks and a dozen or so Warthogs were also provided.

They had been given five thousand ARS1 Assault Rifles. The ARS1 was boxier looking then the MA5B and slightly longer. The barrel protruded from the rest of the gun by about three inches. It had a scope that had a 2x zoom on top of it. What made the ARS1 so special was the pump-action shotgun at the bottom of it. The ARS1 primarily fired 60 round clips of 7.62x51mm FMJ-AP rounds, the same as the MA5B. Its secondary held eight 8 gauge (3.5") Magnum 15P-00B shells, the same as the M90 Shotgun. After every shot the shotgun needed to be pumped.

Along with the ARS1 Assault Rifle was the five thousand MA9B Grenadiers. The MA9B Grenadier was like the MA5B except instead of a flashlight on the bottom there was a grenade launcher. The MA9B came with a 2x scope on the top. It's primary ammo was 60 round clips of 7.62x51mm FMJ-AP rounds, just like the MA5B. Its secondary was able to hold one M7 HE-DP Fragmentation Grenade, a smaller, less powerful version of the standard frag. After every shot a new grenade had to be loaded in.

They had also given her thirty new vehicles. They looked like Humvees, a late twentieth to early twenty-second century military light armored vehicle. It was wider then the Warthog by about three feet and longer by two. It could carry six people, eight if you wanted too, all together and was loaded with five guns. The soldier in the passenger seat wielded a new M249 machine gun capable of firing between eleven and one. In the back there was two new M249s looking out the sides of the vehicles, one could fire between one-thirty and four-thirty, the other able to fire between seven-thirty and ten-thirty. A new M249 was looking out the back and could fire between five and seven. A mounted rotating gauss cannon sat in the middle of the vehicle and could spin around the whole vehicle, able to shoot anywhere from twelve to twelve. Its barrel when horizontal to the ground rested two feet above the roof of the vehicle. All gunners were surrounded by the vehicles plating, except for holes large enough for the guns barrels to sweep from side to side and up and down. The wielder of the gauss cannon had their back protected by a piece of curved tungsten sticking out of the roof, that rotated with the cannon and gunner. The M249 was a new machine gun that could fire bigger rounds then the lighter M247. Two extra passengers could sit, squished, between the two side gunners and the gauss cannon's base.

The vehicle had one foot of Tungsten plating, the new metal of choice for the UNSC apparently. And despite its size and weight, it could travel at seventy miles per hour. It wasn't capable of sharp turns but could handle any terrain, even snow and ice. It was called the Alpha Wolf, because it was going to be the leading vehicle in the humans offensive against the Covenant. Since every person in the vehicle was relatively protected from plasma fire, at least until the metal burned away, it was a lot safer to operate then the Warthog, which left everyone vulnerable to being hit.

ONI, Highcom and WST manufacturing had been extremely busy during the last few years. They released the SMG and the Battle Rifle five or six months ago. Now they had two more new weapons and the Alpha Wolf was a hell of a lot better then the Warthogs.

"Be careful ma'am, now that the Covenant control the orbit it will be a lot harder to keep the sky open for any UNSC forces above ground. I'm to let you know that several Longswords and Skyhawks are on hand in case you need them but if it is deemed to hazardous to use them then they will not be available. The same thing goes with a hundred or so Pelicans. You should be weary of aerial attacks as well" The lead pilot explained.

"Its good to know we aren't totally alone up here" she replied. The pilot saluted her before walking back to his transport.

"Distribute the weapons" she ordered. "Tell Gunnery Sergeant Waller to load up three more M12 LRV Warthogs to send up north, now that we can spare them."

* * *

The two new guns are modeled after the two standard guns in Killzone, incase you do see a resemblance. I don't have the game myself by my friend does and it is a pretty good game. 


	7. Save the Queen

Chapter 6 Save the Queen

**1759 Hours, October 28, 2552 (Military Calender)**

**Side Alley, Queens, New York, United States of America, Earth**

Chris peaked out behind the dumpster he was using as cover. Although helpful, the constant green of the night vision was really annoying. Four Grunt bodies lay on the ground, bright blue blood leaking from holes that littered their bodies. He waved his hand in the standard 'move up' motion.

The Alpha Wolfs, the remaining Scorpions and 30,000 soldiers were clearing out all enemies in the area south of Queens Boulevard and west of the Van Wyck's Expressway, which was the southern part of Queens and all of Kings County. The land north of Northern Boulevard and west of Flushing Bay was being cleared out by all the Warthogs they had and 9,000 soldiers.

This left a chunk of land between the two target areas. A chunk of land between Northern Boulevard and the Queens Boulevard, north to south and the Brooklyn-Queen Expressway and the Grand Central Parkway, west to east. The 6,000 soldiers who would be taking it back had no armor support and would be doing the mission unassisted.

Chris was one of those soldiers. The brigade of 6,000 had been split into dozens of smaller units and had been given specific missions to complete. His platoon's main mission right now was to eliminate a Covenant command post at the intersection of Junction Boulevard and 59th Avenue. In order to do this, the platoon leader, Sergeant Parker, had taken out ten soldiers from the platoon, split them into two fireteams and told them to flank the enemy position, one from the north, the other from the south. Chris was the leader of one of those fireteams and would be coming in from the south.

He had been given Mikey, who suffered only some bruised ribs and a concussion from the Brute attack, and Dominique again, as well as two Marines, one a thirty year old hardcore veteran, the other an eighteen year old greenhorn. He had been given a new MA9B Grenadier, and Dominique had been given a new ARS1. Mikey still carried a MA5B and a rocket launcher while the two Marines carried BR55s.

Since it was nighttime and only the waning sun and the full moon offered any light, all soldiers had been equipped with night vision goggles. Highcom had designated nighttime as the official time for human offensives. That was due to the fact that only Jackals could see in the dark out of all the Covenant species and the Covenant didn't appear to have any nighttime equipment like night vision.

The new Covenant creature, designated Brute by ONI, had been seen in several more battles and appeared to be more devastating then Elites, though were dumb as shit. Add to that the Drones, which had originally been spacecraft repairman in deep space, who were now participating in battles and the UNSC ground forces were having a tough time repelling the Covenant.

Mikey peaked out into the street the alley intersected with. "I see some movement. Something big"

"Let me see" Chris said. Mikey moved out of the way, and Chris took his place, peaking out just as Mikey had done several seconds before. He activated his visors binocular mode and examined the large object moving towards them. "Dominique, get Major Ivanova on the line." Dominique fidgeted with the radio on her back for a little bit before making an affirmative sound. "Tell her we have a Covenant vehicle, about 60 meters in length and 50 meters in height. Moves on four large legs and has what appears to be a large plasma cannon in the front. It is moving towards Alpha Base"

Dominique finished telling the Major exactly what Chris said, before stopping to listen to the orders given to her by the Major. "She says we have orders to engage the vehicle, designated Scarab. The only way to stop it is to get on top of it and go down into the control room, because nothing else works. Two others had been spotted making their way to Alpha Base to the south and north of us, and Myth Platoon has already been fractured to take out the two other threats out."

"Roger that. Radio Sergeant Parker and tell him we won't be able to assist in the taking of the covenant command post."

* * *

**1800 Hours. October 28, 2552 (Military Calender)**

**Water Tower On Roof Of Terry Apartments, Queens, New York, United States of America, Earth**

Private First Class James Fisher of the 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marines looked at the green Elite, green because of the sniper rifle's activated night vision, carefully before pulling the trigger. The Elite's head exploded in a shower of blood and flesh.

"Seven targets, corner of Jewel Avenue and 110th Street" his spotter, Private Sam Pecan, stated.

He quickly moved his sniper so it was looking at the intersection pointed out by his spotter. One red armored Elite and six orange armored Grunts were marching across the street, the Elite in the lead and the Grunts arranged in a double line formation behind the Elite.

He moved the scope's reticule over the Elite's head and pulled the trigger. Before the Elite's body even dropped, he moved the sniper and pulled the trigger. He quickly moved the sniper one more time before pulling the trigger for a third time.

He ejected the empty clip from his sniper and slammed in a new one, all the while, never taking his eye from his scope. He quickly picked off the four remaining Grunts, all of which had been running around in panic. The empty clip was ejected and a new one slammed in.

James, Sam, two other sniper/spotter teams, and four Assault Rifle carrying Marines had been designated Omega Squad and were sent onto a water tower platform, forty feet above the roof of a nine story apartment building, that resided a hundred feet into their target area. The rest was simple, kill any Covenant bastard they could lay their scope on.

Each sniper had been given a hundred clips of ammo, which equaled four hundred rounds per sniper. James had wasted sixty-eight shots and had killed forty-nine enemies so far, ten of which had been Elites.

"Jackal, with beam on roof of Queens insurance left side of Jewel Avenue, before it intersects with 110th" Sam exclaimed. James quickly rotated his sniper, scanning the roofs of the buildings before spotting the jackal. He shot the thing right in the chest, sending its thin body flying backwards a couple of feet.

"I got two Brutes, all the way down Jewel, by 113 Street intersection." James positioned his sniper so he had a view of all of Jewel Avenue. He spotted the two new Covenant beings easily, what with their bulky frames sticking out like an Elite in a field of Grunts.

It took him three shots to kill the two Covenant species. Only because after the first one died, the second one started thrashing about like a blood-thirsty animal, and his first shot only grazed the beast's left arm.

There was a pause in the firing, as no Covenant targets could be identified.

"Anyone else hear that buzzing noise?" one of the other snipers asked.

"Drones!" James exclaimed. He stood up quickly, withdrawing his Magnum from its holster and leaving his sniper resting on its bi-pod. The other snipers and spotter stood up doing the same. The four Marines, one of them who appeared to have fallen asleep, glanced around nervously. The sound got louder and louder yet still no Drones could be seen.

"I think they are coming up the side of the building" Sam stated. She was proven right several seconds later when a wall of green rose in front of them, from the side of the building. The UNSC forces opened up on the Drones, pouring lead into the wall of green. Green plasma collided with the water tower, burning holes through it and letting water pour out.

A beam round sliced through the air and collided with Sam, a wisp of smoke rising from right above her left eye, where the beam round had hit. One Marine was unlucky enough to be hit with three charged up plasma shots. The Marines face blistered red before charring black.

Only about fifteen Drones were left, around half the number that attacked them. James unloaded half his clip into a Drone, shooting off one of its wings and sending it toppling to the ground. He unloaded his other half into another one, hitting it in its head on a lucky shot.

Another beam round sliced through the air, hitting one of the other spotters in the stomach. A Marine slammed his rifles stock into a Drone, unfortunately the Marine's momentum carried him over the edge of the water tower and he plunged the forty feet to the roof below.

A sniper was lifted in the air by four Drones, as they tore into him with their claws. James shoved another clip into his pistol and fired all twelve rounds at the group. He hit the sniper twice in the chest, probably killing the man but at least he ended his suffering. His twelve pistol rounds and a series of three round burst from a Marine finished off the four Drones.

A third beam round sliced through the air, killing the last spotter. Luckily James had seen where the beam round was coming from. He dropped to the ground in front of his sniper and aimed at a building two blocks away. He placed the reticules right on the jackals throat and pulled the trigger, watching with satisfaction as its head flew away from the rest of its body.

He stood back up, only to see the last of the Drones fall to their deaths. The two remaining Marines sported some plasma burns and the other sniper was missing his thumb and pointer finger on his right hand.

"Our position has been compromised. Call for an evac" the other sniper, a Corporal, stated.

* * *

**1823 Hours October 28, 2552 (Military Calender)**

**Somewhere in Flushing, north or Northern Boulevard, Queens, New York, United States of America, Earth **

Nathan held on to the back of the Minotaur exoskeleton tightly. In order to take out the Scarab they would have to get on top of it. In order to get on top of it, two Minotaurs will try to attach their grappling hooks high enough onto the Scarab where they could just zoom on up. Four Centaurs, Nathan included, would be holding onto the backs of the Minotaurs, two on each back. "I see the Scarab" one of the other Centaurs said. "Two miles away" They had tracked the Scarab's path and plotted out the course it would most likely take. If they were wrong, they probably wouldn't have another shot at this.

They waited for several minutes, on the roof of a four story house, which equaled about thirteen meters. Since the Scarabs were fifty four meters high, that left forty-one meters, or one hundred and thirty-five feet, between them and the top of the large Covenant vehicle. The Scarab approached their position, following the path they had plotted it would take.

"Cables away" One of the Minotaur pilots exclaimed.

A soft 'woosh' filled the air as the grappling hooks, shot from the Minotaurs' backs, sailed through the air, a thick titanium cable sailing behind it. A soft 'clang' could be heard and the titanium cable tightened.

"Let's reel ourselves up" The other Minotaur pilot said. A steady 'click, click' filled Nathan's ear drums as the Minotaur suit reeled in the cable, and pulled itself up off the roof. They swayed violently as the Scarab continued its path, unaware of its additional passengers. It took almost a minute to reel in one hundred and fifteen feet of cable.

"Get ready Centaurs. Ten more seconds" Nathan heard one of the Minotaur pilots shout. Nathan looked as the view in front of them changed from the bluish-purple metal of the Scarab, to the surprised looks on the Covenants faces.

Nathan jumped off the Minotaurs back and activated his shield on his forearm. It sprang to life in front of him, absorbing several plasma burst. He withdrew the pistol from its holster at his hip and took aim at an Elite in front of him. He fired four heavy slugs into the Elites chest before swiveling his right arm and firing one into a Grunt.

He moved out of the way as the two Minotaurs opened up with their twin heavy machine guns. When the two giant machines were done, two dozen Covenant bodies littered the floor, ridden with bullets holes.

Nathan peaked down the ramp that led to the control room of the Scarab. "Three men wide, interlock shields. At bottom two go right, two go left" he stated. The other three centaurs nodded before forming a glowing wall of red with their shields. They moved down the ramp, Nathan following behind them.

A pack of six Grunts came into their view, the three front men opening fire. Once disposing of their small adversaries they continued onward. They reached the bottom of the ramp without anymore problems. Nathan gave the signal and two of the Centaurs went left, while Nathan and another went right. Five Elites were inside, waiting to ambush them, plasma swords drawn.

An Elite rushed at Nathan and Nathan ran at it. He rammed the taller being with his shield. The Elite stumbled backward before collapsing under the onslaught of Nathan's M6F PS Pistol. Nathan turned just in time to see a fellow Centaur get cut in half by a plasma sword. The Elite roared a war cry before getting shot in the head twice by a pissed off Nathan.

The other two Centaurs had finished off the last three Elites leaving the rest of the cockpit devoid of any living Covenant. "Radio Major Ivanova, tell her we have control of the Scarab"

* * *

**1859 Hours October 28, 2552 (Military Calender)**

**Roof of Justice Office Buildings, Queens, New York, United States of America. Earth**

Chris stared at the Scarab as it approached them. They were currently on the roof of a nineteen story of an office building, That left about twenty feet between the edge of the roof and the top of the Scarab. In order to get onto the Scarab, which would be about ten meters from the building, they would have to zip line it. Which would be very difficult, considering that the Scarab was constantly moving. There wouldn't be enough time for them all to use the same zip line so each of them would have to do this simultaneously.

Mikey hefted the rocket launcher upon his shoulder and aimed carefully. They had to make sure there wasn't any Covenant that could kill them while they zip lines. If there was, things could go to hell in a handbasket quicker then a fat kid on cake.

Two rockets sped through the air and Mikey tossed down his empty rocket launcher. One of the rockets collided with the entrance to the ramp, sending the two jackals standing there flying over the edge. The second one, which was suppose to hit in the middle of a pack of Grunts, instead collided with the edge of the group as the Scarab shifted forward, killing only three out of the eight. The two Marines opened up with their BR55s, killing four more Grunts before they rest scurried down the ramp.

Chris arced his MA9B and pulled the trigger, a 'thump' emitting from the gun as it launched the M7 Fragmentation grenade loaded in its barrel. The grenade soared in the air before, descending down. It hit an Elite's leg, blowing the limb off and sending the Elite toppling over the edge.

"Set up the zip lines" Chris stated. They all picked up the special zip line guns. Chris aimed with the scope carefully, aiming a little bit ahead of where he wanted to hit before pulling the trigger. The spike flew through the air before hitting the little roof like structure on the top of the Scarab. Chris unhooked the slide and barrel from the rest of the gun, the cable of the zip line still protruding from its tip. He placed it against the wall of the staircase housing the stairs that lead to the roof and pressed a button. A slight grinding was heard as a titanium screw drilled itself into the material of the wall and locked the slide, barrel and cable in place.

Then Chris removed the siding of the pistol grip where the pulley used to ride the zip line resided. He unhinged it in the middle, placed it over the zip line and closed it again. Once it was securely in place, he flipped out the two handles from the sides of the pistol grip. He attached the harness at his waist to the two handles and lifted his legs into the air and held on tight as he began the slow yet steady descent to the Scarab.

The cable for the zip lines were set too spread out for about sixty feet. Doing some quick calculations in his head Chris realized that right now he had about thirty-three feet of cable already out and only a twenty-seven more feet to go. When the Scarab finished the step it was taking the cable would be pulled at its maximum, anymore and either one of the ends would be ripped from their holdings and he would plummet to the ground. The others had started their descent before he had and they too would still not make it.

He turned himself around and drew his MA9B up to his shoulder. After switching it back to automatic fire he fired several three round burst and found his speed increasing with each pull of the trigger. He heard the gun fire of the others as they followed his lead.

He looked over his shoulder to see them fast approaching the Scarab. The Scarab was shifting its weight to move again and Chris felt the cable tighten considerably. Looking at his sides he saw the others landing on the Scarab safely. He was almost at the Scarab, when the spike that was dug into the side of the Scarab was ripped out. Luckily his momentum carried him forward and though the cable flew out from between his pulley, he would still land on the Scarab.

An Elite jumped out from behind cover, it plasma sword raised and ready to strike Dominique who had just pistol whipped a Grunt. Chris stuck his legs out in front of him and drop kicked the Elite in the side. The Elite's shield flickered as they both tumbled to the ground, Chris landing on top. The Elite's plasma sword fell out of its grasp. He slammed his rifles stock into the Elite's chest and watched in satisfaction as the Elite's shield failed. He slammed his weapons stock down on the Elite again, this time crushing its skull.

He raised himself up on his knees, firing into the group of Grunts that stood at the entrance to the ramp. The Grunts returned some fire, a plasma bolt splashing across his chest armor and melting most of it. The pack of Grunts retreated down the ramp as two of their comrades died.

Chris reached into the bandolier strapped around his chest and withdrew a M7 frag. He loaded the explosive into the launchers chamber. He pumped the pump handle and aimed down the ramp. He switched it to grenade mode and pulled the trigger, the frag sailing down the ramp and exploding. Squeals of pain and roars of anger echoed from down below.

The two Marines descended down the ramp until coming to the bottom. They threw frags around the walls and farther into the cockpits. Elites and Grunts both screamed as the nades went off, and a Grunts body slid into their view. Chris switched his rifle back into automatic mode and started his descent down the ramp.

Two energy swords cut through the air, slicing both Marines in half. The Elites that had killed the Marines disappeared around the corners again. Chris loaded another grenade, switched to grande mode and launched it right at the corner. The purple blood of an Elite splattered against the wall. He switched back to automatic fire for the third time since attacking the Scarab.

Dominique went down first, her rifle raised steadily in front of her, shotgun mode on. An Elite jumped around the corner and was met with a shotgun blast to his chest. She loaded another round and proceeded downward, staying to the left. Mikey was right behind her, keeping a close eye on the right side.

When they both got to the bottom they turned around the corner and fired their guns. They both came back around, hiding behind the wall of the ramp. Dominique was loading another shotgun shell into her gun and missed the plasma grenade that hit the far wall. She turned, ready to jump out and shoot again, but Chris quickly grabbed her from behind and hauled her up some of the ramp. Mikey had seen it too and had already dive up some of the ramp.

The plasma grenade went off, blistering Chris's feet and warping the metal plating on his boots. The heavy breathing of a Grunt could be heard getting louder and louder as it approached, probably checking to make sure they were dead. Chris raised his rifle and shot the thing in its head as soon as it poked its head out to check the ramp.

Chris went down to the bottom of the ramp and glanced around the wall. There was only two Elites left, one holding dual plasma rifles, the other holding a plasma sword. Chris motioned for Mikey to take the other side and they both peaked out.

Chris and Mikey opened up with their guns, pelting the two Elites with lead. The one with the plasma rifles opened up on Mikey, forcing the ODST to duck behind cover as plasma scorched the air he just stood. The Elite wielding the plasma sword ran at Chris and he ducked behind cover. He was replaced by Dominique who shot the charging alien in the stomach. The Elite clutched its bleeding stomach with one hand as it stumbled backwards. Dominique loaded another shell into her shotgun and finished the Elite off.

Chris poked around the wall again, Dominique moving behind him and together they finished off the last Elite. Chris walked forward, gun still in his hand as he scanned the dead Covenant around him. "I believe we just captured a Covenant Scarab." Chris stated. "If I don't get promoted after this something it definitely wrong"

* * *

**2000 Hours October 28, 2552 (Military Calender)**

**UNSC Military Base, the _Alamo_, edge of the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy**

Spartan-458 looked out of the window that rested in her quarter's wall. In two days time a group of thirty human vessels would attempt to destroy the Covenant fleet that resided around Earth. On board those ships would be forty Spartans. Three of them, including herself, were Spartan IIs, while the rest would be the younger generation of Spartans.

The thirty ships consisted of two suppercarriers, nine carriers, including the new _Titan_, eleven cruisers and eight destroyers. Twelve of the ships were ones that retreated from the previous battle for Earth's orbit, including the two suppercarriers. All hulls had been repaired, MAC guns fixed, archer missiles filled, etc. etc. It seemed like a long run, that only thirty ships would destroy a Covenant fleet of an unknown number, somewhere over a hundred. However the thirty UNSC starwhips were nothing more then distractions, the Spartans had the main mission.

The Spartans mission was the same one that was assigned to the Spartan IIs at Reach, before the Covenant attacked and blew it all to hell. They were to board a Covenant craft and find out where the Covenant home world resided. She would of been there, at Reach, helping her fellow Spartan IIs if she wasn't to far away to be called in on time.

Now only eight of them were left alive. The loss of forty-two due to augmentations when they were fourteen, thirty to death, twelve to severe and non-curable physical disfigurements, was extremely hard. The deaths of twenty in battle, after more then thirty years of fighting together was just as hard, if not harder. With Kelly MIA and John pursuing the Prophet's flagship, well the fate of the Spartan II program looked grim.

New factories had been built all over human occupied planets in the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy. Production of military supplies and equipment was the biggest concern of all Sagittariusians, especially since only a handful of solar systems were between Earth and the beginning of the Sagittatirus Dwarf Galaxy. Fifty new UNSC war ships were in production and five-thousand new Navy crews were being trained at the moment. Every citizen over the age of eighteen was learning how to use firearms, as well as basic military tactics.

They wouldn't be going down without a fight, it wasn't in human nature to go down without a fight. If they had to they would blow their nukes on board their own ships, as long as it took the Covenant with them.

"Senior Chief Petty Officer" Nicole turned towards the voice and saw a lowly Private saluting her. "They need you at command, ma'am"

* * *

**2000 Hours. October 28, 2552 (Military Calender) **

**Bridge of _Aztec_, orbit around UNSC Military Base, the _Alamo_, edge of Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy**

A little over six hours ago they had withdrawn from the battle around Earth. When they arrived at the _Alamo_ they had immediately had been approached by a repairing station and had docked with the larger, square shaped ship. Technicians and engineers had worked diligently to repair his ship to bring it up to the condition it was in before the battle. Although they were short several levels, the _Aztec_ was once again a formidable ship.

The fleet had been limping and was surprised that no Covie bastards gave chase. They used the Cole Protocol of course, jumping randomly before arriving in front of a mass of fifty UNSC warships. The mighty fleet of one thousand UNSC ships, before the war had started, had been whittled down to a mere ninety-three. That was also including newly built ships, and ships taken out of storage like the _Pillar of Autumn _and _Touch of Humanity_.

It was a wonder, how many ships the damn Covenant had. Almost five hundred were blown up with the _Unyielding Hierophant_. Five hundred and seventy-two of them were destroyed in the battle for Earth. An estimated four hundred had been killed in battle during the past seventy-five years, not including the battle above Earth. Who knew how many were above Earth at that very moment. There just seemed to be a never ending amount of the damn alien bastards.

Right now the _Aztec_ was patrolling around the _Alamo_, making sure no Covenant came into the system and caught the UNSC forces there unawares.

"Sir, we have a slipspace rupture occurring at coordinates twenty two, three, sixty seven." Plato stated.

"Chief Petty Officer Jones, move us towards coordinates twenty, three sixty six" Captain Lewis snapped.

"On it sir" the Chief Petty Officer replied.

"Ensign Leery, alert command of our findings. Ensign Williams warm up the MACs" The two Ensigns typed furiously on their consoles, following his orders.

A Covenant prowler, a ship about three times larger then a Phantom, came drifting out from the green rupture in space. It was battered and looked like it had been through hell. "UNSC destroyer, do not attack, I repeat do not attack. This is Spartan-029 along with Spartan-056. We are in control of the Covenant prowler " A voice crackled over their comm.

"Both Spartans have been declared MIA since Reach" Plato piped up.

"Ensign Leery patch me through"

"You're good sir" Ensign Leery said after several seconds of typing.

"You mind telling me what your doing with a Covenant prowler Spartans?" Captain Lewis asked.

"Returning to help kick Covenant ass sir" Spartan-029 responded.

Vice Admiral Clark appeared on screen, his face grim. "Is it the Covenant?" he asked.

"No sir" Captain Lewis replied. "Two thought to be MIA Spartan IIs aboard a battered Covenant prowler, sir."

The Vice Admiral's face showed his relief and a small smile appeared on the man's face. "Well I'm sure we'd all like to hear their story. Get them to dock with you. I'll be arriving soon"

"Roger that sir" Captain Lewis said. "Did you hear that Spartans?"

"We heard sir. Coming to dock now" one of the Spartans responded. Lewis signaled for Ensign Leery to cut the transmission.

"Get some medics down there to check them over, and some technicians to go over their armor" he ordered. "They might be hungry too, so send some food as well"

"I'll send some over now" Plato responded.

Forty minutes later found Captain Lewis sitting in the ships conference room with Vice Admiral Clark, several ONI spooks, three Spartans from the _Alamo_ and the two Spartans that came in on the prowler.

"I'm sure we are all wondering exactly what happened to you two, so we'll save our questions for later" Admiral Clark said, addressing the two Spartans.

Both men were almost seven feet tall and packed with muscles. They were pale, almost white due to their lack of sun. They looked like they could easily lift up the Admiral with their pinky fingers, and Captain Lewis didn't doubt it.

"I guess I'll start" Spartan-029 said. "Master Chief Petty Officer John-117, Petty Officer Second Class Linda-058 and I were to land upon the UNSC Gamma docking station to get to a ONI stealth ship, the _Circumference,_ and make our way into its cockpit where we would then delete its navigation data, which the crew failed to delete when they evacuated, which was in violation of the Cole Protocol. We had crashed into the stations hull while avoiding Covenant warships and I was to gather the explosives we had attached to the front of our Pelican, we hoped to blow a hole through the hull because every other way was sealed by the emergency shutdown. Covenant drop ships and Elites in thruster packs were inbound and were firing upon our position. Master Chief told us to get some cover, but I was almost done gathering the explosives and stayed out in the open. A needler round landed on my thruster pack and exploded. The thing went haywire and I was propelled off the ship and into space, where I flew away from the _Cdocking station_. I thought I would tumbled through space until I died of dehydration, or until I was killed by a Covenant Seraph."

"That is where I came in" Spartan-056 spoke up. "Along with Senior Petty Officer Frederic-104 and Petty Officer Third Class Kelly-087, I was taking a captured Covenant Banshee to assault the Covenants position and plant a nuclear weapon in a Covenant cruiser that was stationed several meters above the ground. Plasma towers were tracking us and plasma was flying everywhere. A bolt of plasma collided with my Banshee and I started to lose control. I tried communicating with Fred and Kelly but I got only static. I saw Kelly throw the nuke up the ships grav lift and they both turned and took off. I went to follow but my Banshee wasn't flying properly and I was ascending upwards right outside the hull of the cruiser. I saw a Covenant prowler exit from one fo the cruisers docking bays right below me and decided it was my best shot.

"I ejected from my Banshee and free fell onto the top of the prowler. They sent an Elite with an energy sword to get rid of me, but I quickly disposed of it and took the energy sword. I then proceeded to kill the rest of the crew, which included a minor Prophet. The nuke went off before I could fully clear the area and the ship flipped through the air. I managed to get it under control before I fell back to the planet and crashed. Just as I was about to jump into space something collided with my port side. Seconds later, Spartan-029 came inside the cockpit"

"Were you able to recover any data from the files in the Covenant prowler?" one of the ONI spooks asked.

"No sir, we didn't focus on that, just getting back to human held territory" Spartan-029 responded.

"You two could very well of got us the information we are looking for" another ONI spook said. "There could be information on the Covenant's home worlds on that prowler"

"By all means" Spartan-056 started. "Tear into that ship all you ONI people want, we have no need for it anymore" The few ONI people in the room nodded their heads before walking briskly from the room.

* * *

Spartan-458, Nicole, is actually a character in the Dead or Alive 4 game. The creators of Dead or Alive wanted to add Master Chief to the game but Bungie wouldn't allow it so instead they created a new Spartan. Their bio on Spartan-458 doesn't fit with the time line for the Spartan IIs so she would probably be a Spartan III. I found her listed under Wikipedia when I was searching for the names of more Spartans to use and decided to use her, even though she isn't part of the actual Halo universe. She is a Spart II, one of the three that were to far away to be recalled to Reach. 


	8. Put On Your Speedos!

**Chapter 7 Put On Your Speedos!**

**0320 October 29, 2552 (Military Calendar)**

**Alpha Base a.k.a. Queens Financial, Queens, New York, United States of America, Earth**

"I don't want any of your ONI bullshit. All I want to know is, can you figure out how to work the damn thing?" Major Ivanova asked for the fifteenth time. The ONI tech gave her a withering look.

"There is no way to find out unless I try," the man finally replied through gritted teeth.

"Then get to it spook" she barked. The spook scurried off and into a waiting Warthog that would carry him to one of the Scarabs. She wasn't in a very good mood at all. She had just been informed by ONI that all UNSC forces on Earth would be withdrawing into the underground cities and bunkers that the rest of Earth's human population already occupied. They were basically giving the planet to the Covenant.

First however, they needed to distract the Covenant forces from detecting the mass movement of weapons, resources and machinery that would be taking place. In order to do that several large human attacks would be taking place all around the world. She was to organize one of them, and she had just the target. The damaged Covenant carrier floating above the forks of Long Island. Unfortunately they still had to get by the Covenant forces in Nassau and Suffolk County, which is why they needed to get those Scarab's up and working.

Looking at the time in her HUD she saw they had seven more hours before the coordinated human attack would take place. She already had the soldiers under her command fighting nonstop. They were pushing into Nassau at that very moment.

The twenty ODST she had left from the _Aztec_ was leading the charge at the north shore, while the forty Marines lead the push in the south shore. That left the twenty-six soldiers of the Myth Platoon spread out and leading the push in between. The U.S. army soldiers just weren't experienced, so they weren't ready to face the Covenant in battle by themselves, but they were quickly learning.

There were only two groups in the U.S. Army who were worth anything. They were the Rangers and the Green Berets. Unfortunately the Green Berets numbered only three hundred and the Rangers numbered a little over a thousand. It was also unfortunate that Highcom had most of them policing civilians.

Much of Earth's military forces were policing any stray civilians into the system of underground bunkers and cities. It didn't help that Covenant forces were swarming all over the world. Though there were only three places where they were in such large numbers, and she was at one of them.

"How are things going up there?" she asked into her comm system.

"We can recognize half of the controls through our translation of the Covenant language. They all appear to be written in the Elite language, with another language underneath it, probably meant for the two different species who pilot the craft." A voice answered her. "Judging by the fact that we can't identify this second language my guess would be that it is the language of this new Covenant species, the Brutes. I'm guessing this because we know at least the basics in the language, both written and spoken, of the Elites, Jackals, Hunters, Grunts, Drones, Engineers and Prophets"

"As long as we figure out what it says in Elite language, I don't really care if the other language was that of god himself" Ivanova stated.

"Roger that ma'am" the person she was talking to cut the link. She looked at the holographic map in front of her. After several minutes of careful deliberation she finally decided on a course of action.

"Sergeant Lawson, tell Gunnery Sergeant Waller to prepare two companies of a hundred men each to clear out Fire Island and Jones Beach Island. One company will go west, the other east. Send four Pelicans to pick up two Great Whites and get it ready"

The Sergeant, who had previously been eating his rations, stood and saluted her. "Right away ma'am" the man snapped before rushing out of the room.

**0411 Hours October 29, 2552 (Military Calender) **

**Several Acres of Woodland in Port Washington, Nassau, New York, United States of America, Earth**

"Tell me again why we are doing this?" Mikey asked quietly.

"We can't take out the two Hunters by ourselves, not with their backs facing the cliff wall like this. Therefor we are going, or at least we are trying really hard, to push this damn rock on top of them. Now push!"

"But won't they be able to just jump out of the way?" Mikey questioned.

"The rock has only twenty feet to fall. That's only two-second notice before it crushes them. I doubt even a Spartan could get out from underneath it in time" Chris explained in a soft voice. "With a boulder this size, it has to weigh almost a ton. Unfortunately me and Dominique are unable to push that much weight by ourselves and need your damn help!"

Mikey answered by putting more effort into pushing the boulder. When Chris was in highschool, he used to work as a stock boy at a local grocery. When they got shipments in, he had to push hundreds of pounds worth of goods from the loading truck and into the back of the store. One time he remembered using some basic math to figure out how much weight he was pushing and was astounded to learn he was shoving seven hundred and fifty-pounds worth of water. Then he was fairly muscular, now he was packed with rock hard muscles. With the help of Mikey and Dominique this should be doable. However, the grass wasn't providing great traction.

Chris's legs strained from the pressure as his heels dug further into the ground. The boulder started to move before it was slowly rolling forward. Once it was in motion, it was a lot easier to keep it in motion and less effort was needed, though it was still straining. Next thing they knew no more effort was needed as most of the boulders weight went over the edge of the cliff and tipped it over. The rock fell before landing with a loud thud and two sickening squishing noises as it landed on the two Hunters.

Chris looked down and saw orange blood everywhere. The limbs of the two beasts were still moving, even after being crushed by a ton of rock. "Frag out" he tossed a nade that rolled toward the rock. It exploded, shifting the rock some and sending more orange blood shooting out onto the grass.

"This is Lance Corporal Benedetto, the Hunters are eliminated and we are advancing on the target" he said into his walkie-talkie.

"Negative Lance Corporal. You have a new mission. Fall back to your LZ and await a Pelican. Gunnery Sergeant Waller asked for your fireteam specifically for this" a voice answered.

"Roger that, falling back" Chris replied. "You heard him you two, lets get our asses moving" The three of them walked along the cliff's edge until it started to slope down before leveling off at ground level. They passed by several dead Grunts and an Elite, as well as the dead body of an Army boy that had been assigned to their fireteam. Out of respect Chris hefted the dead guy over his shoulder and carried him with them to the LZ.

As soon as they got there a Pelican landed down and the Gunnery Sergeant jumped out. Several Army boys followed him, forming a perimeter around the bird. Chris handed the body over to two Army soldiers, who took their fallen comrade and loaded him onto the Pelican.

"I have a special mission for you Benedetto. But first, I thought I ought to give you this" In his left-hand Waller held out a patch that resembled the one on his dress uniforms sleeve, except it had two arrows, and not just one. In his right hand was a pin of the same insignia. "Highcom has reviewed your actions since we landed on Earth and has deemed you worthy of the increase in rank"

"Thank you sir" Chris snapped a salute, a wide grin on his face.

"That goes the same for you two" he said, addressing Dominique and Mikey. Two Army personnel stepped forward, handing a Lance Corporal patch and pin to Mikey and a Private First Class set to Dominique.

"Thank you" they both said, slapping salutes to their superior. The three ODST followed their respected leader into the Pelican. The Army soldiers following behind them.

The engines roared as the Pelican lifted off the ground. After checking with the pilot Waller turned to look at them. "During our assault on Long Island, the barrier islands to the south, Fire Island and Jones Beach Island, have been mostly neglected by our commanding officers. Besides a few strikes here or there, nothing major has been done. Well that is changing. Major Ivanova sees Fire Island as our ticket to getting to that Covenant starship quickly. Sergeant Parker will be making sure no Covenant on Jones Beach Island sneak in on our ass, and I'll be leading the main assault on Fire Island with you as my second, at least until the Sergeant is done on Jones Beach Island and takes control as second from your hopefully competent hands. Major Ivanova herself will be leading a regiment of men along the south shore, hopefully distracting the Covenant from our assault, which though smaller is more important. At our rears, once Jones Beach Island is free, the Army will be setting up a supply line and transport route that will be shipping men and supplies along Jones Beach Island, down Fire Island and to the Covenant starship" Waller finished his explanation with a look at them. "Any questions?"

"I do sir. Won't they have the bay covered with some type of water vessel or maybe the shore covered with turrets or something?" Chris asked.

"They do, which is why we have two Longswords clearing the way for our landing" Waller answered as the Pelican landed. The four ODST climbed out of the back after the Army boys. "We are assigning you a platoon for this mission, as well as a squad for future operations. Both are made up of soldiers whose original squad members have been killed. I guess you should get acquainted with your squad now" he pointed to an average size house. "We'll be moving out tonight at 1800 and your squad will be staying in that house until then"

The three of them nodded before walking off toward the house. Before they reached the door it swung open and Private Jake O'Brein stood in the doorway.

"Glad to see you three survived so far" the Marine said, smiling at the three of them. The ODST took off their helmets and returned the greeting. "I guess I should introduce you to the other soldiers that will be making up our ragtag squad"

They came onto a living room where nine other people were seated. "That's Private First Class Gabriel Black, the only other Marine in our squad." A seven foot-two, two hundred and twenty-pound of muscle, black man with a bald head, who was leaning against the wall, nodded to them. Chris and Dominique returned the nods while Mikey muttered "Good lord he's huge"

"Over there on the loveseat are Private First Class Ryker Banks and Private First Class Joshua Roman" Black was about the same height as Chris, but a lot thinner with blonde hair and blue eyes. Roman was slightly smaller then Black with brown hair and brown eyes.

"Sitting on the arm chair we have the lovely and extremely frightening Private First Class Phuong Vo, who likes to be called Phu(Foo) for short" Phuong was a pretty woman of Asian descent and straight black hair. She had a small frame, only being five feet and three inches and weighing no more then a hundred and fifteen pounds.

"On the couch we have second in command Corporal Izzy Jackson" a tall, lanky man with dark blond hair and nervous hazel eyes nodded his head "Private Ilya Petrov" A short and stout man with a heavy brow and greying brown hair just gazed at them impassively. "And Private First Class Jordan Cole" Jordan Cole was a good-looking blonde with green eyes, a five-foot four inch frame and an athletic body.

"Finally we finish off with Private Kevin Thompson, who is a Ranger" A little over six foot and fairly muscular, Kevin had mocha colored skin and black hair. Being a Ranger would earn Kevin more respect from any Marine he met.

Since wars were rarely fought on planet surfaces, special forces weren't really needed in armies, and few planets or countries had special forces left in them. The United States Army got rid of Delta Force one hundred and six years ago, exactly one hundred years after the last war on Earth was fought. When the term Navy was moved to space, and water-based ships were to be considered an extended form of the Army, the Navy Seals were disbanded, especially since the Marines fought for the Navy. The U.S. army only had two special forces in its army, the Rangers and The United States Army Special Forces, also known as the Green Berets.

"Everyone this is Lance . . . I'm sorry, didn't know you guys got promoted, I mean Corporal Christopher Benedetto, Lance Corporal Mikey Cimino and Private First Class Dominique Russino, all ODST" Jake said, finishing the introductions.

Immediately Jordan got up from her position on the couch and walked over to Chris. "ODST huh? That must be so thrilling"

"You have no idea" Chris said grinning charmingly at her.

"There he goes again, Mr. Ladies Man" Mikey drawled.

"Just because the only pair of tits you've ever seen was your sister's saggy ones, doesn't mean you can complain" Chris retorted.

"Hey! You leave my sister out of this. Just because she wouldn't let you bang her before we left for boot, doesn't mean you can insult her. Besides, what about Chelsea who worked at the ice cream parlor? Or Melinda, the girl who dropped out of boot after three months? And we can't forget Miss Clark, that woman who was so grateful I saved her life she fucked me to return the favor." Mikey stated.

"First of all, your sister gave me some head before we left and her tits are saggy. Second of all Miss Clark was almost eight months ago! How do you go so long without having sex? I'm surprised you don't have arthritis in your hand!" Chris made an up and down motion with his fist to demonstrate his point.

"You pervert, I can't believe you even think of me doing that. You are one sick human being" Mikey exclaimed.

"Yeah, yeah. You keep telling yourself that I think about you wanking it, since you obviously get arousal from it." He looked at the rest of the squad. "I don't know about you guys but I've been fighting Covenant for the past three hours and I'm exhausted. I'm going to try to get some sleep"

"Do you mind if I join you?" Jordan asked, looking at him with puppy-dog eyes.

"Please do" Chris replied, allowing himself to be led away by the bold blonde. Dominique rolled her eyes at the display.

"You do know it's frowned upon for two soldiers to have intercourse with each other while on duty!" she shouted at them.

"It's a good thing I'm a Marine then!" Chris shouted back.

**0548 Hours, October 29, 2552 (Military Calender)**

**Hempstead, Nassau, New York, United States of America, Earth **

"Get behind us soldiers" Nathan barked. The two soldiers did as told and quickly scrambled behind the red wall made by the Centaurs' overlapping shields. Hundreds of plasma bolts slammed into the shields, making a rippling effect every time they hit. A house to the left of them exploded in a cloud of blue as a large plasma bolt slammed into it. Screams of pain emitted from the house as several men in side were burned to death.

"Somebody take out that damn Wraith before it targets us!" Sergeant Major Lowell shouted.

He was answered by the explosion of the Wraith, sending debris everywhere. The chatter of gun fire filled their ears and soon the torrent of plasma stopped.

"This is Leo Omega squad, approaching from your twelve" a voice crackled over his comm.

"Don't shoot, don't shoot. Friendlies coming in" the SgtMaj yelled to his Centaurs. Six Leos came jogging over to them from where the Covenant soldiers once stood.

"We have reports of a large Covenant convoy moving to fortify a Covenant a mile to the south of us. We've been ordered to intersect the convoy before it can reach its destination and eliminate it" Leo One stated. Omega Squad consisted of Leos One, Two, Four, Seven, Eight and Eleven. "Spartacus has traced its route and we are to set up an ambush at Merrick Avenue, right before it intersects with Front Street. We'll have to set up a spotter on Hempstead Turnpike because that is where they'll be turning onto Merrick from and we don't want to be unawares"

"You heard the Staff Sergeant, get your asses moving maggots!" Lowell shouted. "You too Army boys, we'll need all the help we can get" The handful of Army soldiers around them nodded their heads before joining the quickly jogging Myth Marines. They had to go over a block, cross the Meadowbrook Parkway, go over a few more blocks and up two blocks before they would reached the Merrick/Front intersection.

While the rest of the world was urbanizing, there was still patches of land that remained either rural or suburban. The rural areas was full of the commercial farms and the workers of the farm who lived there. The suburban areas was considered the land of the wealthy, for apartments was where most people lived on Earth. Long Island, at least Nassau and Suffolk County, were never urbanized and was home to some of the wealthiest people in the world.

The area they were setting up their ambush was a four lane street, with a turning lane. On one side of the street was five houses and a corner grocery store. The other side of the street was occupied by a row of three apartment buildings.

"Leo Four set up your M247 on that fourth floor terrace, second apartment building. Leo Eight and Eleven, take the second house from the grocery store, second floor. But first I want you to set up some anti-tank mines with a small satchel charge right before the two streets intersect. Leo Seven, I want you in the farthest house from the grocery store. Centaurs Two through Five stagger yourselves throughout the apartment buildings. Centaurs Six through Nine stagger yourselves throughout the houses. Leo Two, you and Leo One will be in the grocery store. You there, soldier with the rocket launcher I want you on the roof of that third apartment building. The rest of you, stagger yourselves" Sergeant Major Lowell ordered. The nine soldiers and fourteen Marines nodded their heads before doing what they were told.

"Sergeant Major Lowell, this is Private Mitchell. The convoy is on approach and is turning onto Merrick Avenue now" a voice crackled low over his radio.

"Get ready boys!" the man yelled. Around the corner came six Brutes with a Wraith right behind them. Behind the Wraith was a line of five Shadows and with another Wraith bring up the rear. A line of fifteen Grunts walked on each side of the Shadows, with two Ghost floating along next to the Grunts.

When the Wraith got up to the anti-tank mines Lowell gave the signal and the satchel charge was blown. Two of the Brutes were enveloped in the blast, the other four thrown forward. The pilot of the first Shadow was engulfed in flames and died screaming in agony. Two rockets fired and the Wraith in the back blew up in an explosion of flames and plasma.

The sides of the Shadow's popped open to emit the troops held within. The M247 opened fire on one of them and killed all four of the Covenant before they could even hop out of their seats. The various Marines and Soldiers hidden in the houses opened fire as well, raining lead into the thirty Grunts that walked the sides of the convoy.

One of the Ghost zoomed a head of the formation and swooped back around, shooting plasma at the grocery store where Leo One, Leo Two and an Army Private were and pinning the three of them down. The second Ghost turned and started to spray the terrace Leo Four was on with plasma, but was stopped short when a rocket slammed into it. The back Shadow's turret was blown off by a rocket before the Grunt behind the controls could do anything. The other Shadow turrets started to pour plasma into the various windows the UNSC forces were shooting out of. Several screams of pain filling the air.

The soldier with the rocket stood up on the roof to get a better shot at the strafing Ghost that was pinning down the soldiers in the grocery store. As soon as he pulled the trigger half a dozen needlers landed on his stomach. He stared at it in horror before they blew up, sending blood and intestine everywhere. The rocket he fired before he died slammed into the left side of the Ghost and sent the vehicle and driver flipping through the air.

The four Brutes in the front had turned towards the first apartment building and the two in the back sent a wave of red plasma into the various windows. Nathan, who was on the first floor of that building, opened up with his BR55 and put twelve rounds into the chest of one of the Brutes before the two in front, holding Brute Shots, launched two clips full of grenades at his position. He quickly dropped his Battle Rifle and activated his arm shield. It sprung to life just in time to take the hit of the first two nades.

He stumbled back some at the force of the grenades and moved the shield closer to his body as more nades started going off in the room. One exploded behind him and sent shrapnel into his back. His armor took the brunt of the attack but there was still pieces that tore through his uniform and into his lower back.

Leo One and Two opened fire on the remaining three Brutes as soon as the Ghost was destroyed, and took all three down in a hail of bullets. A group of six Jackals had formed a small shield wall, with their backs to a Shadow. They were ducking behind their wall, firing their plasma pistols occasionally. Since the jackals were crouched as low as they could go, Leo Four had no good shot on them at all.

Since they were getting shot at from both sides, the Shade turret operators were taken care of in short order, after inflicting few casualties. The Shadow drivers had jumped out of their seats and shot at the windows they could see black barrels sticking out of. The Covenant that came out of the Shadow troop compartment tried to organize a defense but they had no cover to hide and regroup behind. Soon all that was left was the group of six Jackals. An Army soldier, on the other side of the Shadow the jackals had their backs to, rolled a frag underneath the vehicle. It exploded, sending shrapnel into the legs of the vulture like creatures and the once formidable shield wall was now just six Jackals rolling on the ground screeching in agony. Leo Four quickly shut them all up with a burst of fire from his M247.

"Call for an evac, we've got wounded" Sergeant Major Lowell shouted. "Leos One and Two, police the Covenant. The rest of you, gather our casualties"

The rocket soldier, and three other soldiers with severe plasma burns were the only deaths for the UNSC forces. Nathan was quickly discovered with pieces of metal embedded in his back. Leo Eight was found with most of his chest armor burned through, which was saying a lot because it was made out of two materials that took a lot of heat to melt. A soldier was missing his left arm from the elbow down, while another one was clutching his black, flaking thigh.

Four dead, four wounded. All though he wished no human had to die, they were in a war and it was inevitable. Besides four deaths was pretty good, considering they took out 90 Covenant soldiers, two Ghost and two Wraiths.

**1630 Hours, October 29, 2552 (Military Calender)**

**176 Oak Street, Port Washington, Nassau, New York, United States of America, Earth **

Chris walked into the living room of the house fully armored. He was carrying his MA9B Grenadier in one hand and had the small gun cleaning kit every Marine carried in the other. He sat down on the couch, sniffing the air as a great smell entered his nose.

He glanced to the kitchen where he could see Mikey and Jake cooking some food. From what he could see it was enough food for about twenty people. Which meant Mikey was only feeding himself.

"Didn't sound like you got much sleep those first three hours, or the last two" Mikey said, as he walked into the living room with a plate full of dozens buffalo wings and huge bowl full to the brim with mac and cheese.

"I figured the people who lived here wouldn't be back anytime soon and would feel honored to feed the UNSC's finest" Mikey stated at Chris's raised eyebrow. Mikey walked back into the kitchen and returned quickly with a plate covered in hot dogs.

Jake came out with a plate full of grill cheese sandwiches and a large plate full of oven-heated pizza. Gabriel, Ryker and Josh all came into the living room, eyeing the food hungrily. Dominique walked in next, with Phuong right behind her. Kevin walked in from outside, sweat pouring off of his face and his clothes soaked. Ilya and Izzy came seconds after Kevin, sweating worst then Kevin and both wheezing loudly. Finally Jordan walked into the room, a satisfied look on her face.

Everyone crowded around the coffee table where the food was placed and plates were handed out. The food was distributed, everyone getting a decent amount. They dug into the food, satisfied grins appearing on all of their faces.

"Haven't eaten anything other then the UNSC approved rations in almost a year" Chris said, swallowing a mouthful of mac and cheese.

"I here ya" Mikey replied through a mouthful of buffalo wing.

"I don't think I want to go back to the fighting" Ryker said, laughing.

"Everyone knows what the mission is right?" Chris looked at all of the people in the room. He received nods of confirmation from everyone. "We only have forty minutes left of relaxation. After this we'll probably be fighting until we reach that Covenant carrier, and then we'll go in that Covenant carrier"

They ate their food and listened to stories from the ones who have actually fought in battle besides the last two days. The soldiers were fascinated by the stories of battles Chris, Mikey, Dominque, Jake and Gabriel took part in. Chris and Mikey were just finishing up their story of how they escaped from Coral before it was glassed, when Dominique quickly jumped to her feet.

"We've only got six minutes to meet Gunnery Sergeant Waller!" she exclaimed. Everyone quickly stood up from the table, gathering all of their equipment.

"Get your asses moving squad! Only two minutes to go and Gunny is not a patient man!" Chris stated loudly, ushering the twelve members of his squad out of the door. Chris followed them outside where he saw Gunnery Sergeant Waller standing in front of eighty-eighty kneeling men and women. Nine Pelicans sat off to the side, their engines a low hum.

"Good thing you made it on time, wouldn't of wanted to spank your ass in front of your subordinates" he barked to Chris. "Now take a knee"

"Covenant anti-air is powerful on Fire Island and if we tried landing there via Pelican, well we'd probably get torn a new one. That is why we'll be taking a Great White across the Great South Bay. Two Longswords will be paving the way for our landing. These Pelicans will be bringing us down south, so put on your speedos boys, we're going to the beach" Waller finished.

Everyone knew a dismissal from a superior when they heard one. As one they all stood up and went to separate Pelicans, each squad taking one. The Gunnery Sergeant had six ODST as his squad, making all of the surviving ODST on this mission, Chris, Mikey, Dominque, Gunnery Sergeant, Gunny's six man squad, Sergeant Parker and the nine going with him.

Chris was the last one to climb into their bird. All of the seats were occupied and Mikey and Gabrielle were both standing, clutching onto handles that hung from the ceiling. Chris maneuvered his way past them and went into the cockpit. There the pilot and co-pilot were prepping for take off.

"ETA to the Great Whites?" he asked.

"If we leave right now fifteen minutes" the pilot answered, not even taking his eyes of the instruments of the dropship.

"You mind if I sit here" Chris said, indicating the seat where the Flight Engineer usually sat.

"Just don't touch anything, I know how curious you mud lickers are" the pilot answered.

"Wouldn't want to mess up your chi, would I pigeon shit?" Chris retorted.

The pilot ignored him however, nodding his head as a transmission filtered over his personal comm.

"Leaving in one minute" the co-pilot told Chris, ignoring her partners attitude.

"One minute until dust off" Chris yelled to his squad in the back.


	9. Longsword Down

Corporal Christopher Benedetto (ODST)- Squad Leader. MA9B Grenadier, 2 M6C Magnums.

Corporal Izzy Jackson (Soldier)- Riflemen. BR55 Battle Rifle, M90 Shotgun

Lance Corporal Mikey Cimino (ODST)- Rocket Jockey. MA5B Assault Rifle, M19 SSM Rocket Launcher, M6C Magnum

Private First Class Dominique Russino (ODST)- Rifleman. ARS1 Assault Rifle, M6D HE

Private First Class Jordan Cole (Soldier)- Marksman. SRSC99C-S2 AM Sniper Rifle, MA5B Assault Rifle

Private First Class Gabriel Black (Marine)- Heavy Weapons Expert. M247 GP Machine Gun, M7057 Defoliant Projector (I have to apologize. I've been spelling Gabriel's name Gabrielle, which is the feminine form of the name)

Private First Class Ryker Banks (Soldier)- Marksman. SRSC99C-S2 AM Sniper Rifle, MA5B Assault Rifle

Private First Class Joshua Roman (Soldier)- Medic. MA5B Assault Rifle, M6C Magnum, Advance Medkits

Private First Class Phuong Vo (Soldier)- Demolitions. BR55 Battle Rifle, M7/caseless Sub-Machine Gun, satchel charges, anti-tank mines, blow torch

Private Jake O'Brein (Marine)- Rifleman. BR55 Battle Rifle, M6C Magnum

Private Ilya Petrov (Soldier)- Rocket Jockey. MA5B Assault Rifle, M90 SSM Rocket Launcher, M6C Magnum

Private Kevin Thomas (Soldier)- Medic. BR55 Battle Rifle, M7/caseless Sub-Machine Gun, Advance Medkits

* * *

Chapter 8 Longsword Down

**1822 Hours, October 29, 2552 (Military Calender) **

**Bayshore, Suffolk, New York, United States of America, Earth**

"Why don't we just take the bridge?" A Private asked as they walked got off of the Pelicans.

"What bridges? The Covenant destroyed every bridge and overpass they could get their hands on after we took back Roosevelt Island and the Queensboro Bridge. They didn't want to help our advance" Gunnery Sergeant Waller yelled. "Now hurry up soldiers, and get your asses in that Great White!"

The Great White was reminiscent of the landing crafts used by the Allies at Normandy over six hundred years ago. There were a few exceptions of course, for instance it was a lot bigger, fitting one hundred men plus one gunner and one captain. The metal it was made out of was titanium alloy, and there was two feet of it in the siding. It has a retractable roof that was half a foot of titanium alloy. There was a heavy 50 caliber machine gun, operated by the gunner, that sat next to the captain, elevated a foot higher then the already elevated "bridge." Near the front on both sides, there were rocket pods sticking out that fired four 102mm rockets each.

Chris and his squad was one of the first ones to climb into the thing. Others poured in after them, and soon the thing was fairly cramped. Chris leaned against the metal wall in the back, getting as comfortable as he could get for the twelve minute journey.

The twin engines of the craft started to rumble, and they started to move. Going slowly at first, they gained speed quickly and soon the wind was blowing against the faces of the Marines and Soldiers (ODST have helmets that cover their heads with a visor that shields there entire face). The ride was bumpy, causing most to sway on their feet and bump into the other soldiers around them.

When they were several hundred feet off the shore, a rumbling sound filled the air. Looking up, two Longswords flew over their heads. They soon passed out of view, due to the front of the craft.

"Shit" Chris looked up at the captain of the landing craft. The man had a look of frustration on his face.

"Mikey" Chris said, getting his friend's attention. The ODST turned to look at Chris, only to see Chris's hand cuffed together. "See what's going on" Mikey nodded in understand before putting his left foot in his friends hands. Chris lifted him with relative ease, his muscles straining slightly under the weight of his friend and his friend's armor, a good two hundred pounds.

"The Longswords are just reaching the beach. At least six anti-air and two dozens Shade turrets are firing at them. They dropped their payload, and bye, bye to seven of those Shades and a whole squad of Covies. Oh crap, one of them is hit bad. The other one is pulling off, and the one that hit is spiraling, spiraling and it crashed" Mikey finished his explanation, jumping to the deck.

They hit the beach seconds later. The front of the landing craft dropped open and several plasma bolts slammed into the first few soldiers. The 50-cal opened up and all four of the rockets launched. The two buildings that they landed in front of blew up as the rockets slammed into them, the plasma flow cut off. The few Covenant that occupied open area were cut down by the gunner of the Great White, and the UNSC forces poured out of the landing craft, stepping over the bodies of the three that already died.

"Benedetto" Chris turned toward Waller. "I have a new mission for you. Get your squad and secure that Longsword. It crashed a hundred meters northwest of us, in a bunch of houses. You'll have more info on your HUD"

"You got it Gunny. Alright squad, form up on me" The eight men and three women of his squad converged around him. "As you know a Longsword was shot down before we landed. Our mission is to secure it. If you look on your NAV you should see a marker indicating where it is. The four crew member's neural tracers are still blinking, which means they are still alive. Covie density appears to be light, but that could change"

* * *

**1900 Hours, October 29, 2552 (Military Calender)**

**Chamber of the Security Committee, Highcom Security Building of the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy, Alamo Military Base, Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy**

Three men, dressed in black dress uniforms stood eagerly in front of the five officers that made up the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy's Security Committee. The one in the Milky Way Galaxy, had higher command over them, and consisted of a little over the twice the number. However, since they couldn't refer to the one on Earth anymore, they had to make an important decision themselves.

The committee consisted of General Julius Larway and Major General Kyle Adamski of the Marines, Fleet Admiral Paul Weinstein and Admiral Jessica Pride of the Navy and General of the Army Marcus Ceaser.

"So you know the coordinates of a Covenant planet..." General Larway trailed off.

"Yes sirs. When the two Spartans returned with the Covenant prowler, we took apart the database piece by piece, and while most of the files were deleted, we did find the location of one planet, sirs." One of the ONI men explained.

"It's located across the Milky Way, and would take us maybe seven months to get there, sirs" Another added.

"Do you know anything about this planet?"

"It isn't a home planet, I'm afraid to say, sirs. However, the planet, Etono, is a large planet that they use to train their future soldiers. From what our little friend told us down stairs, we gathered that they ship the young there to train for several years, before assigning them a ship. He told us there is a small garrison of company size of actual soldiers, and about ten ships, sirs" Of course when he said little friend, he was referring to their Grunt prisoner that they captured a little over a month ago. Humans tried to take Covenant prisoners as much as possible.

Grunts were easy to interrogate, you could either be extremely forceful until they caved, or you can go about it nicely. They decided to be nice to it, and it worked like a charm. They kept him in a methane filled room, served him food he seemed to like and didn't physically harm him. Not use to that kind of treatment, the Grunt had relaxed over the weeks and came to be very friendly with them.

The Grunt down stairs had told them of the hostility within the Covenant ranks. The Hunters and their arrogance, the rivalry between the Elites and Brutes, the odds that the Elite High Council and the Prophets constantly found themselves at, and the Grunts hatred off all the other races for treating them like dirt. He told them that the Covenant fleet was being worn thin. That besides the fleet at Earth, the others never consisted of more then thirty ships, and that the ones not at Earth were for guarding the Covenant planets.

"Thank you for the information, you are free to go" Fleet Admiral Weinstein said, dismissing the three ONI spooks. As soon as the three men left, they started to converse amongst each other.

"Should we risk it?" Kyle asked.

"Can we even spare the troops?" Marcus pondered.

"I think we should do it" Jessica stated firmly. "Give those bastards a taste of their own medicine and get rid of a new generation of alien soldiers."

"We have four cruisers in the process of being built..." Paul said, trailing off.

"We should do this quickly. Those ships won't be ready for another two months" Julius explained.

"This will put back our mission to recapture Earth though..." Jessica trailed off.

"It will, but I think this can benefit us. Think of it, if the Covenant hear that we attacked one of their planets, especially one meant for military training, they'd probably send ships to utterly destroy us. What if they are afraid we are moving out to other planets and don't want to get rid of their garrisons? What if some of those ships came from Earth? It would lessen the burden for the attack on the planet. We land there, do some damage, stay there for as long as we can. Once we get word that other ships are coming upon us, we flee but, we leave a NOVA behind. Blow the damn thing and destroy not only the planet, but hopefully their starships as well" Julius looked at the other four officers around him.

"It will be a lot harder then that" Kyle started.

"But it seems like the best option right now" Jessica finished.

"I think we agree we can't spare many ships. I'll alert the _Atom_, _Aztec_ and _Dawn of Heaven _that they are to prepare to leave tonight at 0000. We want this done as quickly as seven months can be done" Paul said. He picked those three ships for different reasons. The _Atom_ was a suppercarrier and could handle four Covenant cruisers or even a Covenant carrier on its own. The _Aztec_ was chosen because its leader, Captain Lewis, was a tactical genius, and had a tally of seventeen Covenant ships on his record, making him one of the most effective Navy officers they had for versing the Covenant. _Dawn of Heaven_ was picked because it honey-comb of titanium made it resilient and hard to take down.

"I also believe we should send a refit station, maybe the _Armory. _If they do engage in heavy combat, I think it would be better to have the armory there to make sure they can jump back into slipspace if they take too bad of a beating. Maybe send it to leave three days after the others leave." Admiral Jessica Pride added. The _Armory_, could repair four ships at a time, making it perfect for the three ships they were sending. Fleet Admiral Paul Weinstein stood up from his seat and walked out of the room.

"I guess I'll go debrief the 4th Armored Division on their new mission" the Major General said, standing up from his seat. "Outfit a lot of them with the MA9B Grenadier, the ARS1 and our two new guns and we should give those Covies something to fear"

"It would probably be good to take a platoon of Spartan IIIs" General of the Army Marcus Ceaser exclaimed.

Major General Kyle Adamski nodded his head, before striding from the room. The remaining three officers continued to discuss the recent events.

* * *

**1908 Hours October 29, 2552 (Military Calender)**

**Bayshore, Suffolk, New York, United States of America, Earth**

Major Ivanova squeezed the trigger of her BR55 Battle Rifle, sending three rounds into the back of a Jackal. She kicked the thing in discuss, rolling it off of the dead teenager it had been feasting on. There was a large chunk of the teens stomach that was gone, his eye opened in horror.

"Major, we found something that might interest you" The voice of Sergeant Lawson crackled over her comm.

"Where are you?" she asked into her comm.

"The principle's office" The Sergeant replied.

"I'll be right there"

They had discovered a large amount of Grunts and Jackals on the grounds of the highschool, feasting on the dead children that covered the grounds of the school. About two squads had moved into the school, eliminating any Covenant they came upon. It was mostly Grunts and Jackals they found, with one or two Elites. The surprising thing was that they found the dead bodies of several Covenant already laying around.

She arrived at the principle's office where Sergeant Lawson and two Privates stood. The room was made out of mahogany, and had one wall covered in twenty different monitors.

"Show her son" Lawson commanded.

One of the Privates fiddled with something on the desk in the room, and she could see images appear on the screen. It showed students running around in fear, with Covenant soldiers chasing after them.

One monitor showed a classroom. Inside the classroom was a group of huddled students and a teacher. Against the door the filing cabinet, the teacher's desk and all of the students desk were piled in front of it. The door gave a mighty shutter, knocking over some of the desk. It shuttered again, this time pushing away most of the obstacles again. Finally the door burst open, a Brute charging into the room.

She glanced away from the monitor. "Ma'am if you will look at the bottom left corner" She turned her head to the screen they were talking about.

It showed a kid get tackled by a Jackal, which started to tear into his back. However a large teenager, most likely a senior, came into the screen and kicked the Jackal in its back. The vulture-like creature fell forward, and the senior slammed in foot onto the beings head, crushing it. Then stripping the Jackal of its plasma pistol and personal shield, the large student picked up the smaller one and ran from the screen.

"Now look at the middle one" The middle monitor showed an Elite and two Grunts enter the gymnasium. Immediately they were assaulted by students and two teachers with hockey and lacrosse sticks. While the Elite was easily able to handle the punishment and started to kill his attackers, the two Grunts were quickly beaten down. While the Elite was lifting one of the teachers by his throat, a student picked up a plasma pistol and charged it up. The ball of plasma slammed into the back of the Elite and destroyed its shield. The other students then proceeded to beat the Elite to death.

"It is our belief ma'am that there may be some survivors in the school" The Sergeant said bluntly. She looked up surprised, wondering how he came up with that. "We downloaded the blue prints of the school and we believe the most likely place is in the school basement"

"Why do you think there are survivors?" she asked.

The Sergeant looked a little nervous before answering. "That senior who took out the Jackal from behind and the student who used the plasma pistol, well those are my youngest brothers ma'am. I don't see them lying dead in the hallways and I'm hoping they took refuge like I taught them"

The Major contemplated it for several minutes. "Alright, gather two other men and we'll take a trip down to the basement" The Sergeant nodded his head, before quickly telling the Privates to gether two more men. The two soldiers left the office at a quick pace while the Sergeant and Major strolled out.

"Thank you for this Major" the man stated.

She nodded her head at him before the four Privates came walking over to them. She didn't say anything to them as they started the journey to the school's basement. Since the principle's office was only around the corner to the stairs that lead to the basement, they didn't have to walk long.

Three Grunts, an Elite, six Drones and a Brute, all dead and all littering the steps leading to the basement. The doorway was occupied by a blue, glowing Jackal arm shield. Except it wasn't a jackal hiding behind the shield. It was the same muscular teenager from the video, clutching a plasma pistol in his hand. Over his shoulder they could clearly make out a teacher holding a Carbine in his hands.

"Justin!" The teen with the shield cried, upon seeing Sergeant Lawson. Ignoring the heartfelt reunion, Major Ivanova stepped past the armed teacher and into the room. About sixty students lay on the floor, some with various wounds. Half a dozen teachers also littered the room, comforting the students and ignoring their own wounds. Seven of the students were armed, and five of the teachers were as well.

"Alpha Base, this is Major Ivanova. I'm at the highschool in Bayshore. We've got about seventy civilians that need to be evacuated"

* * *

**1913 Hours October 29, 2552 (Military Calender) **

**Saltaire, Fire Island, Suffolk, New York, United States of America, Earth**

Chris's feet pounded against the wooden boards of the walkway. On either side of him average size houses lined the walkway. Plasma bolts of all colors flew from those houses and landed around him, slamming into the wood and lighting it on fire. He finally reached the end of the houses and dove onto the sand, rolling down a small dune and using it as cover. More plasma slammed into the top of the dune, sending sand all over him.

Chris could see smoke fill the air and looking over the little dune he was behind, he saw that not only was the walkway on fire, but the first house that held Covenant was on fire as well. The plan was, Chris would distract them and the others would kill them. Gabrielle Black was the heavy weapons member of the team. The man carried a M247 and a M7507 Defoliant Projector, aka the flame thrower.

Chris brought his gun to bare, and switched modes. Aiming it carefully, he pulled the trigger, emitting a 'thwump' noise from the gun. The M7 fragmentation grenade flew from its barrel and slammed right below a windowsill of the house closest to him. The wooden wall was torn apart by the grenade, and the Grunt who was using the window to fire from, fell two stories to his death.

A bolt of plasma slammed into the top of his helmet, melting through it like nothing. Ducking down, he quickly took of his helmet and threw it to the ground. He cursed loudly, feeling his burning scalp and singed hair. The burning scalp may of been annoying, but his burnt hair would make him look like an idiot for who knew how long.

A roar escape from above him, a shadow passing over him. Chris rolled out of the way as blue plasma slammed into the sand he just occupied. Turning toward his assailant, Chris saw a black Elite aiming at him. He dove out of the way as more plasma exploded from its plasma rifle. Rolling onto his stomach, Chris quickly switched his mode and squeezed the trigger.7.62x51mm bullets slammed into the Elite's glowing shield. The Elite, still firing, brought its gun to bare on Chris. Two bolts of plasma slammed into his stomach and chest armor before the gun started to overheat. Chris's gun gave the ever feared clicking sound that meant it was empty.

Springing to his feet, he slammed the butt of his rifle into the Elite's stomach, and sent it stumbling down from the top of the small dune it was standing on. The Elite roared, back handing Chris with its rifle wielding hand. While his jaw didn't shatter, like he thought it might, blood did fill his mouth and his jaw ached like a bitch.

Spiting out blood, Chris slammed his foot into the Elite's leg, sending it falling to the ground. He rose his foot high in the air and slammed it down on the taller creatures chest. The Elite's shields disappeared, but Chris didn't get to celebrate his victory as the Elite kicked his feet out from under him.

Next thing Chris knew the Elite was on top of him, punching him twice in the face, one blow landing on his left cheek and the other smashing into his temple. Blackness crept into his vision, but he ruthlessly shoved it down. The Elite went to swing again but using a trick he use to use on his older brother when they wrestled with each other as kids, he raised his lower half of his body of the ground and wrapped his feet around the Elite's neck from behind, locking his feet together. He slammed his feet down to the ground, sending the Elite slamming into the ground as well. He brought his foot back and lashed out, catching the Elite in the head. The Elite stopped struggling after the kick, and he assumed he knocked it out.

Chris stood up, spitting more blood from his mouth. His temple ached, his cheek ached, his jaw ached and his legs ached. Looking up he could see more of the houses on fire, and the screams of the Covenant soldiers ringing in his ears.

Mikey came running to him, having gone around the burning houses. He looked at the knocked out Elite and the bruised Chris. "You look worse then that time you tried walking on those monkey bars and fell of, slamming your face into one of the bars, in sixth grade" Mikey stated bluntly.

"I wouldn't of slipped, if you didn't pull down my pants while I was walking" Chris said, darkly.

Mikey shrugged his shoulders. "You told Vicky I had a crush on her! I had to get revenge somehow" The Elite groaned and Mikey kicked it in its chest. "We should tell Gunny we have a prisoner"

"You do it" Chris replied, opening up his personal med kit and popping some pain killers in his mouth. He unscrewed his canteen lid and took a swig of the water inside, before screwing the top back on. He then proceeded to put his helmet on, the hole in it still slightly warm as it pressed against his scalp.

Mikey talked with Gunny over his comm before looking at Chris. "He says bring the prisoner to the Great White. There should be some things to restrain it there"

"Get Gabriel here, he's probably the only one who can lift the damn thing" Chris ordered.

"On it" Mikey replied, walking off and to the burning houses.

He seconds later with not only Gabriel but the rest of the squad as well. "Black I want you to bring this Elite back to the Great White. Jackson, accompany him and keep a close eye on that Elite. If it twitches, hit it again, if it moves Black is to drop it and you're to pump a shotgun shell into it" The two in question nodded. The large Marine hefted the Elite over his shoulder in a fireman carry before starting the walk back to the Great White, Jackson following him closely.

"The rest of us will be continuing on our journey to secure the Longsword. Covenant numbers are still light and we only have another minutes walk before we come upon our objective"

Hopping back up on the walkway, Chris led his squad down the walkway. He could make out the rear of the Longsword sticking out from the sand. Half of the fightercraft was buried in the sand. The ramp leading to the Longsword was opened an inch, and most of it was buried underneath the sand.

"Vo, you and O'Brein are to get inside that Longsword. The rest of you, start digging holes twenty steps from the Longsword and at least ten steps from each other. It's your hole and your life depends on it, so you decide how deep to dig it."

With that said, Chris walked over to a spot and started digging a hole with his hands. The progress could of been faster, since more sand kept pouring in every time he scooped some out. However, after a good ten minutes he had a decent size hole and was sitting in it.

The sound of Phuong's blow torch was still reaching his ears, which meant they still hadn't found a way in yet.

"I have a pack of Grunts moving in" Mikey said over the comm. Chris looked around and saw that Mikey was on the other side of the Longsword, the west side while he was on the east. He had Dominque to his left and Jordan to his right. To the north of the Longsword he could see Ilya Petrov.

"I've got a fireteam of Brutes coming in" Jordan said frantically over the comm. Chris snapped his head to the east and saw the five Brutes moving in slowly. The one in the middle had a Brute Shot in his hand, while the rest held the red plasma rifle.

Chris loaded a grenade into his launcher and aimed. He pulled the trigger and watched at it fell several feet short. He fumbled with another nade as the Brutes opened fire on their position. He could hear the gunfire coming from Dominique and Jordan, on both sides of him. Fumbling with his grenade, he loaded it into the gun and aimed. Pulling the trigger, he was happy to see his shot hit a Brute in the chest and explode.

The combined fire of Jordan and Dominque had put down another of the Brutes, leaving two with plasma rifles and one with a Brute Shot. The one with the Brute Shot fired at Jordan's position and Chris could hear her scream in pain.

He switched his gun's mode and aimed carefully. He pumped twelve shots into the chest of a Brute, and watched as it stumbled backward some. It didn't halt in its attack however, and he pumped more shots into its chest and stomach. It took two-thirds of his clip of sixty rounds to put the thing down for good.

By that time Dominique had taken care of the fourth one, leaving the one with the Brute Shot left. Of course beings as animalistic as they were, the Brute tossed aside its weapon and charged at them. Chris unloaded the last twenty rounds in his clip before quicky discarding his used clip and slamming in a new one.

The Brute closed the distance between them quickly, even with dozens of bullets slamming into its shoulders, chest and head. It reached into Chris's hole and grabbed him by the head. It then proceeded to toss him into the air. He landed heavily into the water, his body slamming into the sand underneath the waves.

He awkwardly got into a standing position, his vision obscured by the water running down his visor. A shotgun blast filled the air and Chris worried for Dominique. A large wave slammed into his back and sent him tumbling under the water. The hole in his helmet let some water into his helmet as he tumbled, but the fact that his scalp pressed against the top of the helmet, prevented anymore then a few drops from getting in.

He crawled onto the shore and away from the water. Looking up he could see, though blurred by drops of water, the Brute laying dead in front of Dominque. Ilya was lifting Jordan out of her hole, setting her down next to the Longsword. Joshua came from the other side of the Longsword and started to attend to her wounds.

The grenade from the Brute Shot had exploded in front of her, sending shrapnel into her upper torso. One piece had crashed through her visor and implanted itself into her cheek, while her chest armor protected her from anymore damage.

"Where in" Phuong said, as the large hole of plating she burned through fell to the ground. "Probably would of been easier to use one of those plasma rifles." she added, looking at the red weapon.

"Right, Kevin...and Joshua" he added, seeing Joshua finish patching up Jordan, "I want you two to go in their and take care of the flight crew. Phuong I want you to go in there and go over the computer and everything, see if anything needs to be erased. Mikey set explosives over it. Anything that doesn't have a UNSC neural chip in them goes in there, I want this thing to blow up. Jake, you'll be taking over Mikey position around the Longsword"

Just then Corporal Izzy Jackson came running to their position from the north. Chris didn't see Gabriel anywhere, and enquired as to where the Marine was.

"Got in a Brawl with the Elite. Next thing either of us new, it was pushing off of Gabriel and went for its plasma sword. Lopped off Gabriel's left hand before I could bash it in the back of its head. I then had to drag the thing to the Great White, luckily they had some medics to deal with Gabriel. I don't think he will be accompanying us for the rest of the mission" Izzy explained.

"That's bad news. Since you're here, you can take up one of the empty holes on the other side of the Longsword, they should be done quickly in there" His second in command nodded his head before jogging out of his sight, around the fighter craft.

They waited for five minutes before the four pilots had been taken out of the Longsword, and Phuong and Mikey had completed their task.

"This is Corporal Chris Benedetto, I need an evac at the crashed Longsword, all four pilots are critical" Chris said into his radio.

"Roger that Corporal, Echo 12 is on approach" a pilot answered.

"Prepare those Navy boys for evac" Chris yelled to Joshua and Kevin. All four of the Longsword crew were securely strapped to their stretchers, braces around all their necks. "Do you want to go on this evac Jordan?"

"No, I'm fine" the female replied. Her visor was cracked and useless, meaning she was at a major disadvantage.

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"Positive" Chris nodded his head, accepting her decision.

The sleek black craft that was the Pelican came into view, its engines humming. It came to a stop several feet away from the Longsword and descended to the ground. Disembarking from the troop bay in the back was a team of eight Medics. The Medics quickly ran to the four bodies laying upon four stretchers. One grabbing the front, another the back, the stretchers were carried off in pairs. As soon as all four stretchers were secured in the Pelicans troop bay, the bird took off.

"Gunnery Sergeant Waller, this is Corporal Benedetto. The Longsword has been secured and we are moving out to your position now"

"Roger that Corporal. We are currently holding up in Ocean Bay Park. The Covenant have us pinned down and we could sue the extra man power" the Gunnery Sergeant replied.

"Alright squad, lets move out"

* * *

**2000 Hours, October 29th, 2552 (Military Calender)**

**Briefing Room, Highcom Security Building of the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy, Alamo Military Base, Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy. **

"Alright Marines I have some damn good news. The spooks have discovered a Covenant planet" Major General Caden Valentin's words were met with a loud cheer emitted from the 15,000 Marines in the room. The forty Spartans in the back, though not cheering like the rest, were smiling at the good news. "And you get to be the ones who go and kick that planet's ass." Another cheer was emitted. "At 0000 the _Atom, Aztec_ and _Dawn of Heaven_, will be leaving here with us onboard. The trip will be a long one, seven or eight months have been estimated but we will get their and we will kick ass" The Marines started cheering again, taking a while to calm down.

"In order to make sure of the future ass kicking we will be handing out and make no mistake we will be handing out some ass kicking, Highcom has seen fit to equip some of you with two new weapons that have recently been invented. And no, we aren't talking about the MA9B or the ARS1, those two are old news boys and works of the Department of Manufacturing Firearms. These two new ones are courtesy of ONI. Since I have no idea what these things are, I'm going to hand it over to Dr. Francis Benedetto"

Francis Benedetto was an inch below six feet in height. He was a thin man, weighing only one hundred and forty pounds. His hair was light brown and thinning, and his brown eyes glinted with intelligence. Francis Benedetto use to be a professor at The University of Earth Science and Mathematics Campus, the most prestigious science and math university on Earth and one that only accepted students with 4.0 GPAs and perfect scores on their SATs. Francis had Master Degrees in Mechanical Engineering, Material Engineering, Physics, Nuclear Physics, Microbiology, Chemistry and Biological Science

However, when his son was five years old, Colonel James Ackerson had approached him with some interesting news. Explaining the Spartan project to Francis, the Colonel bluntly said that Chris was chosen to as one of the new Spartan-IIIs. Devastated at the news, Francis had asked Ackerson if there was anything he could do to get his son of the list. That's how he found himself working for ONI, and his son not a Spartan.

Francis stood calmly in front of the 15,000 Marines. He picked up something on the table, holding it up for all to see. It looked like a pistol, except with a long tube where the barrel ended(silencer), an elongated back and a very long clip. "This is cross between a pistol and a sub-machine gun. It is designed after the Uzi, a weapon popular in the 20th-22nd centuries. It uses the open-bolt blowback design. They come with a silencer attached to the barrel, perfect for quiet operations. The clip carries forty 10.3x35mm armor piercing rounds, more powerful then your standard Magnum and SMG, but not as powerful as the M6D series. Perfect against the smaller infantry, but it takes most of the clip to kill an Elite and all of it to kill a Brute. Its series number is SMG-P1, but you can call it Uzi or Poker" Francis demonstrated the gun in both semi and automatic mode, and showed them how to load the gun and cock it.

Then placing the gun down, he picked up a bigger gun that he had trouble hefting. The gun was basically a long, circular piece of metal with a grip and trigger. "This is the M300, or Minigun. It has a rotating barrel, like the M41 LAAG, but unlike the M41, it has eight barrels. It fires eight rounds per second or 480 rounds per minute. Because of its high rate of fire, it has a clip of five hundred rounds, which you load in the back, or stock of the gun. It uses 7.62x51mm FMJ-AP rounds, just like the MAB series of assault rifles. Useful for mowing down whole squads of enemies." Dr. Benedetto demonstrated how to use the gun and load the clip, before placing the gun back on the table. "Your weapons have been assigned to you and you will receive training on the use during your slipspace journeys"

* * *

The Minigun is modeled after the one in Unreal Tournament, which I use to play on Sega Dreamcast. Damn good game and damn good system. 


	10. Underneath the Carrier

One more chapter left in this story, then I go to the sequel, Operation Arcani.

Chapter 9 Underneath the Carrier

**2139 Hours, October 29, 2552 (Military Calender)**

**Ocean Bay Park, Fire Island, Suffolk, New York, United States of America, Earth **

Chris looked around wearily. He could see the large ditch dug in the sand but he couldn't find the UNSC personnel who were suppose to be using it as cover. About a dozen dead human bodies littered the area but not one of them was Gunnery Sergeant Waller. He could see a destroyed AA plasma gun, as well as the pieces of a shattered Shade Turret. There was also two and a half dozen dead Covenant soldiers with bullet holes all over there bodies.

If Gunnery Sergeant Waller had moved forward, then wouldn't he had radioed Chris and told him that?

"Friendly!" a voice shouted. Chris looked up to see an Army Private running towards them. The man was clearly out of breath. The others looked at the man expectantly as he rested.

"Gunnery Sergeant Waller wanted me to tell you that we have moved farther along. Our radios got fried by an EMP blast from a Fury Tactical Nuke that was dropped on a large Covenant position in the Pines by a Skyhawk. He told me to tell you, to keep moving east until you come upon him. I'm also suppose to tell you that I'm now under your command until we link up again with the Gunnery Sergeant." The Private said it all in one breathe and had to rest again after saying it all.

"You heard the private. Our men are on the move, killing alien bastards while we sit here soaking up sun on the beach. Let's get our asses moving. Double time, we've probably have a good two or three miles to jog" Chris snapped, moving his squad into action.

**2201 Hours, October 30, 2552 (Military Calender)**

**West Islip, Suffolk, New York, United States of America, Earth **

Major Ivanova shielded her eyes as suddenly six pairs of stadium lights flicked on. The stadium lights were six high power lights sitting on a high up pole and were used by humans to provide enough light at nighttime so they can go about their business under the pitch black sky.

As soon as the lights came to life, a hundred UNSC Engineers started on their work to build a bridge to Fire Island. They were going to be using Quick Pave for the roadway. Quick Pave was like Instacrete, in the way that it was quick to dry.

A dozen Pelicans came in, each one carrying a large metal pillar. The Pelicans were suppose to descend above a certain spot, until the large metal pillar had hit the bottom. Then a team of Scuba Engineers were to go under the water and make sure the pillar was stable. Once it was, the pelican would drop its connection to the pillar and fly off.

Then another, smaller group of Pelicans would come in carrying these large heavy pieces of wood, with siding along two opposite sides. The Pelicans would carefully lower the pieces of wood so that they rested perfectly balanced on top of the pillars. Once they were positive the things were perfectly balanced, the engineers would pour the Quick Pave onto the wood, and spread it out to give it extra support.

Of course it wasn't as easy as that. It took several tries for all the Pelicans to get the pillars in the right spot, and even more to get the pieces of wood perfectly balanced on the pillars. However, it was necessary if they were to transport vehicles and troops across to Fire Island.

"Commander, Highcom has seen fit to send us a Class-A Smart AI for when we invade the Covenant ship." Sergeant Lawson said, handing her a Data Crystal Chip. "It's name is Tecumseh and he is modeled after the American Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman. Sometimes he likes to think he IS General William Sherman and he likes to refer to the American Civil War a lot."

"Highcom hates me don't they?" she asked rhetorically.

"I think so ma'am" Sergeant Lawson answered, not knowing it was a rhetorical question.

"Is everything going to plan?" she asked.

"Yes ma'am. The vehicles are loading up now. Alpha Base will be moved to this town in two hours," the Sergeant answered.

* * *

**2315 Hours, October 29, 2552 (Military Calender) **

**General of the Army Marcus Ceaser's Office, Highcom Security Building of the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy. Alamo Military Base, Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy **

"Is there a reason why you barged in here Tech Officer?" The General asked loudly.

"Sir, we've received a distress signal on a human encrypted channel. After several hours we've pinpointed the location of the signal. It's coming from the moon Basis orbiting the planet Threshold" the Tech Officer explained.

"Alpha Halo" the General of the Army muttered.

"Correct sir. We believe more survivors may have survived the destruction of Alpha Halo then just Sgt. Johnson and Master Chief Spartan-117, but that is up to the Security Committee to decide" the Tech Officer stated, looking at the General.

Marcus glanced at a screen sitting on his desk. He touched the screen several times while bringing up the Alamo's vessel registry. It showed all vessels docked at the Alamo base, or patrolling the space around the base.

Marcus reached over to a telephone that sat on his desk. He picked it up and punched one of the buttons on its base. "Please send Ensign Miller of the _Hoplite_ to my office," Julius said into his phone.

Marcus Ceaser and the Tech Officer waited in silence for ten minutes before the woman walked into the room. Ensign Miller was a small and slender women who was wearing a crisp Navy uniform, not a wrinkle in sight.

"Sir, you called me, sir." Ensign Miller said, saluting her superior officer.

"At ease. I have a mission for you. We have a distress signal coming from the moon Basis which orbits around the planet Threshold. As you know, this is where Alpha Halo was destroyed. We have belief that there are more survivors from the Halo incident then just that have returned to us. Although this could be a trap set up by the Covenant, I feel it would be wise to investigate it. We expect there to be Covenant ships in orbit as well. Therefor I want you to jump at the edge of the system and hide behind the moon, which is big enough to hide your vessel, while you send a Pelican to search its surface" Ceaser said, finishing his explanation. "Leave as soon as possible"

"Yes sir. I'll leave as soon as I can gather a willing platoon" The Ensign replied, saluting her superior and left the room.

"If you excuse me" he said, to the Tech Officer. "But I have to be there for when Operation Payback takes off"

"Of course sir" The Tech Officer replied, leaving his office.

Marcus Ceaser rose from his seat and walked out of his office, using his thumb print to lock the door behind him. It took him almost five minutes to reach the large shuttle that would take him up to the dock station that orbited the base. The other members of the Security Committee were all sitting in and waiting for him to arrive.

"I'm sorry, something important came up and I had to take care of it" he said, stepping into the craft. As they made the trip to the docking station, he explained to them what the Tech Officer had told him, and his decision.

The shuttle landed in a small docking bay, and its rear ramp opened up. The five officers walked off of the shuttle and through the blast door in front of them. They arrived in a large circular room that lead to several docking bays, as well as having six doors that lead to the connection tunnels that hooked on to starships and allowed personnel to travel from a ship to the station and vice versa.

They came in time to see Vice Admiral Andersen, Captain Lewis and Captain Flemings of the _Dawn of Heaven_, finishing their prep talks to their crew. Dozens of other UNSc personnel were milling around the room, wanting to be here for the monumental occasion. They were finally taking the fight to the Covenant. It was glorious indeed.

Major General Major Valentin noticed them first. "Officers on deck" Everyone in the room snapped to attention.

"At ease" General of the Army Marcus Ceaser stated gruffly. "Are your boys prepared for this Caden?" he asked, walking up to the 4th Armored Divisions leader.

"You bet your ass they are sir." The Major General replied. "The 4th Armored Division is always ready for a fight"

The 4th Armored Division, nicknamed "Iron Fist" was the most decorated Armored Division in the UNSC. They had fought in dozens engagements against the Covenant on Outer and Inner Colonies. When Reach was destroyed they were given some R&R on the Alamo, there first in six years and were told to be prepared for engagement in a month. Well by then the Covenant had attacked Earth and they were stuck on the Alamo Military Base until a new mission opened up for them.

The 4th Armor consisted of two Infantry Brigades, a Mechanized Brigade and a Divisional Artillery. The 1st Infantry Brigade consisted of the 1st Battalion, 36th Infantry, the 2nd Battalion, 36th Infantry, the 1st Battalion, 37th Armor and the 334th Forward Support Battalion. The 2nd Infantry Brigade consisted of the 1st Battalion, 6th Infantry, the 2nd Battalion, 6th Infantry, the 1st Battalion, 35th Armor and 47th Support Battalion.

The 1st Mechanized Brigade consisted of the 1st Heavy Battalion, 35th Armor, the 2nd Battalion, 37th Armor, the 3rd Battalion, 37th Armor, the 133rd Engineer Battalion and the 74th Support Battalion. The Divisional Artillery consisted of the 1st Battalion, 1st Field Artillery(supports 2nd Infantry Brigade), the 2nd Battalion, 1st Field Artillery(supports 1st Mechanized Brigade) and the 3rd Brigade, 1st Field Artillery(supports 1st Infantry Brigade).

"That's good to hear. Good luck on your mission Major General" Ceaser said, saluting the man. The Major General nodded at his words, saluting in return.

"Thank you sir" With that said, Caden Valentin walked through the blast door that lead to the connection tunnel to the suppercarrier the _Atom_.

Looking out the large windows in the circular room, the personnel who had come to see the three ships off, could see the connection tunnels disengage and retreat back to the docking station. The engines of the three warships came to life, and they began to drift away.

As soon as the ships were far enough away, a green slit in space opened up in front of the _Aztec_. Since it had an accurate slipspace generator, while the others didn't, the other two ships were to follow the _Aztec_ to the location.

The _Aztec _flew into the green slit, followed closely by the _Dawn of Heaven_ which tore the slit even bigger. Finally the _Atom_ went through the hole, ripping it even more. As the suppercarrier disappeared from view, the personnel still in the room gave a might cheer. Unable to stop himself, General of the Army Marcus Ceaser joined them in their cheer. They had so little to cheer about anymore.

* * *

**0637 Hours, October 30, 2552 (Military Calender) **

**Smith Point, Fire Island, Suffolk, New York, United States of America, Earth**

So Gunny had advanced a lot farther then Chris had anticipated. Smith Point was near the end of Fire Island. If you want a little farther down you would come to a channel between Fire Island and another barrier island. This other barrier island then led to an area of land that jutted out of the southern fork which was separated from the barrier island by another channel. The little piece of land would be three miles away from the Covenant carrier's grav lift. All in all they still had a good 20 or so miles left before they reached the carrier.

Mikey, who was always fascinated with planes of the past, had wanted to see the old Northrop Grummans building and had even had the nerve to ask Chris if he could request a mission over there. Northrop Grummans was the creators and manufactures of all UNSC fightercrafts and air crafts. They created the Pelican, Albatross, Longsword, Skyhawk and Bumblebee lifepod. Of course they were no longer located on Long Island, but had several dozen locations spread throughout the Inner Colonies. Their old building had been turned into a museum, to show the history of the company, originating in 1929 where it supplied planes for the United States Air Force.

Right now he was still trying to catch up with the Gunny, who had gone way past the Smith Point parking lot, pass the little campsite area and was standing at the end of Fire Island. Through his binoculars he could only spot six other men with the Gunnery Sergeant. They had seen about six or seven score of Covenant dead bodies upon the way, as well as a somewhere along the line of eighty dead UNSC Soldiers and Marines.

Over his radio he had heard that Alpha Base had been moved to West Bayshore, around the bridge they had just built. A large convoy was already on its way, bringing fresh troops, ammunition and even some Warthogs to use in the push across this other barrier island.

The Covenant had bolstered their forces after learning that all of Fire Island was under human control. They had Wraiths, Spectres and Shade Turrets littering the island as well as a battalion of troops.

"Gunny!" Chris yelled, clearly exhausted. "You sure know how to move. I've been running after you for the past ten hours. Well we did rest twice, and there was that little firefight with some Grunts, so more like eight and a half hours..." Chris trailed off. The Gunnery Sergeant looked at him amused. "Anyway, I figured since you didn't have a radio, you had no idea on what was going on."

"How observant of you Corporal" Waller said sarcastically.

"You flatter me Gunns, you really do. A bridge has been built from Long Island to Fire Island. A convoy is already on its way here, to resupply us with troops, munitions and some vehicles. They are going to be making a quick bridge to the other island, and then we are to kill all Covies there. Alpha Base is at West Bayshore, where the bridge is, and Major Ivanova wants us to be underneath that carrier yesterday" Chris explained.

"Good. Tell her we may not of had it yesterday, but we sure as hell getting under that damn carrier by noontime" Waller replied.

* * *

**1130 Hours, October 30, 2552 (Military Calender)**

**South Hampton, Suffolk, New York, United States of America, Earth **

Chris circled the Covenant encampment around the gravity lift. The gauss cannon mounted on the back, let out a steady 'ksh' every five seconds, and it riddled the Covenant with 35 caliber slugs.

Mikey, who was manning the gauss cannon, laughed out loud as he blew up a Shade turret. Several rockets whizzed by in front of Chris and slammed into various Covenant turrets that littered the area.

While their may have been only six thousand humans attacking the heavily armed Covenant position, they were sure as hell doing a good job. To start the attack, their had been two volleys of a hundred rockets each volley, that basically decimated every Wraith and Ghost the Covenant had guarding the lift.

Major Ivanova had then ordered the Warthogs forward to hit the dazed Covenant hard. The two and a half dozen Warthogs circled the area and basically slaughtered the Covenant. It only took another ten minutes to finish off the rest of the Covenant before the last convoy, the one carrying most of the fighting force and supplies started to roll in.

Chris would never doubt Gunnery Sergeant Waller again, not for as long as he lived, which admittedly might not be too long. The Sergeant had said he would get them under the carrier by noon, and looking at the time in his HUD, Chris saw that it was exactly noon. Thousands of men and women were running around, carrying weapons, ammunition and frags, or trying to set up a good defensive position before the rest of the Covenant on the island attacked them.

Throughout it all, Major Ivanova was debriefing the officers of what her plan was.

* * *

Spartacus, in his ancient Greek warrior form and Tecumseh, dressed in his civil war getup looked odd standing next to each other on the holo-pedestal.

A holographic map of the Covenant carrier appeared in front of them. Eight sections of the map were highlighted in green, while seven others were highlighted in red.

"This is the general layout of the carrier that we put together after pouring over the layouts of several other Covenant ships, including battlescruisers and assaultcarriers. The eight green areas represent the bridge, engineering, four shuttlebays and two armories. All eight of them are crucial if we want to take the ship" Tecumseh explained.

"The areas in red represent the separate barracks for each of the Covenant warrior species and the council chamber, which may have several powerful Elites, Brutes and maybe even a Prophet in there" Spartacus said, picking up from Tecumseh.

Major Ivanova stepped forward and cleared her throat. "Each Brigade will be assigned a different and unique task." They had eighty-two thousand seven hundred and fifteen soldiers left, sixty-two Marines, seven ODST, and twenty-four Myth troopers..

Colonel McGreer was the highest ranking Army officer, and was pissed of someone of lower rank was given command over the mission. Highcom did that for one reason and one reason only. Colonel McGreer had never fought in a war, while Major Ivanova had fought the Covenant on thirteen different occasions. Planet armies, especially those of the Inner colonies, rarely fought in any wars, in fact the last war fought on Earth was a little over two hundred years ago.

Under her command from the army was 2nd Brigade(3942 soldiers) and 3rd Brigade(3234 soldiers) of the 1st Armored Division, 1st Brigade Combat Team(2889 soldiers), 2nd Brigade(3327 soldiers) and 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team(3453 soldiers) of the 1st Infantry Division, 1st Heavy Brigade Combat Team(3982 soldiers) and 2nd Brigade Combat Team(3870 soldiers) of the 2nd Infantry Division, 1st Brigade(2983 soldiers), 2nd Brigade(3384 soldiers), 3rd Brigade(3235 soldiers) and 4th Brigade(4390 soldiers) of the 3rd Infantry Division, 1st Brigade Combat Team(3240 soldiers), 2nd Brigade Combat Team(3582 soldiers), 3rd Brigade Combat Team(3621 soldiers) and 4th Brigade Combat Team(3146 soldiers) of the 4th Infantry Division, 1st Brigade Combat Team(4321 soldiers), 2nd Brigade Combat Team(3634 soldiers), 3rd Brigade Combat Team(3092 soldiers) and 4th Brigade Combat Team(3798 soldiers) of the 10th Mountain Division and finally 1st Brigade Combat Team(3423 soldiers), 2nd Brigade Combat Team(3984 soldiers), 3rd Brigade Combat Team(4012 soldiers) and 4th Brigade Combat Team(4173 soldiers) of the 101st Airborne Division.

"2nd Brigade and 3rd Brigade of the 1st Armored Division, 2nd Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division and 2nd Brigade Combat Team and 4th Brigade Combat Team of the 10th Mountain Division will be defending the gravity lift from any ground side Covenant who won't like the fact that we're in their ship. 2nd Brigade and 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team of the 1st Infantry Division will both be moving out toward the bridge. 2nd Brigade Combat Team of the 2nd Infantry Division will head to engineering. 3rd Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division and 1st Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Brigade Combat Team and 4th Brigade Combat Team of the 4th Infantry Division will all be securing a shuttle bay. 1st Heavy Brigade Combat Team of the 2nd Infantry Division and 2nd Brigade Combat Team of the 101st Airborne will be taking an armory each. 1st Brigade Combat Team of the 1st Infantry Division will be taking the Grunt barracks. 1st Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division will be going to the Drone barracks and 3rd Brigade Combat Team of the 10th Mountain Division will be heading to the Jackal barracks. 4th Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division will be eliminating the Brute barracks, while 4th Brigade Combat Team of the 101st Airborne Division takes out the Elite barracks. 3rd Brigade Combat Team of the 4th Infantry Division will move to the council chamber. 1st Brigade Combat Team and 3rd Brigade Combat Team of the 101st Airborne Division will be in reserve in the cargo bay, waiting to assist any unit that needs it. That leaves the 1st Brigade Combat Team of the 10th Mountain Division to keep a series of corridors open that connects each of the eight green rooms to the cargo bay.

"All of the Marines, both regular and special, will be split up amongst the 23 brigades, to assist in the assignments. Now, are there any questions?" Major Ivanova looked around. "No? Good. Go gather your brigades. Tell the Marines to see me so I can give them their orders"

* * *

I know, its very confusing reading the whole things with the brigades. I figured I'd try to make it a little easier. Below is the Brigades in numerical order, followed by what their task is.

2nd Brigade, 1st Armored Division- Guarding Gravity Lift

3rd Brigade, 1st Armored Division- Guarding Gravity Lift

1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division- Eliminating Grunt's Barrack

2nd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division- Taking the Bridge

4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division- Taking the Bridge

1st Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division- Capturing Armory

2nd Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division- Capturing Engineering

1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry- Eliminating Drone's Barrack

2nd Brigade, 3rd Infantry- Guarding Gravity Lift

3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry- Capturing Shuttle Bay

4th Brigade, 3rd Infantry- Eliminating Brute's Barrack

1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry- Capturing Shuttle Bay

2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry- Capturing Shuttle Bay

3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry- Taking Council Chamber

4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry- Capturing Shuttle Bay

1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division- Keep Routes Open

2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division- Guarding Gravity Lift

3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division- Eliminating Jackal's Barrack

4th Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division- Guarding Gravity Lift

1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division- Reserve

2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division- Capturing Armory

3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division- Reserve

4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division- Eliminating Elite's Barrack


	11. Anybody Home?

Chapter 11 Anybody Home?

**1411 Hours, October 30, 2552 (Military Calender)**

**Corridors of the CRS-Class Covenant Carrier- the Preservation of Faith, above the forks of Long Island, United States of America restricted air space, Earth. **

Chris, Mikey and Dominique walked forward cautiously, sweeping their rifles from side to side. They were part of the point squad that was clearing the way to the armory the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne was to take.

It was a simple procedure. The point squad would clear the way, and when they passed an intersection, a squad would guard that intersection until the whole unit would pass, in which case they would add themselves to the rear of the unit.

Chris held up his clenched hand and the rest of the point squad stopped moving and got into a crouch position.

"I've got patrolling Jackals coming around the corner" Chris stated as they approached an intersection. The blue and orange glow of their shields gave the little bastards away before they even came into view.

The second the Jackals, four of them in total, rounded the corner, each of them found themselves with multiple bullet holes in their torsos. Point squad moved up slowly and glanced around the corner.

"Contacts eliminated." Chris stated.

"Roger that" Captain Johansson, leader of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, answered. "The armory should be right around the corner, first door to the left. Proceed with caution."

"Roger"

Motioning with his hand, Chris led the point squad to the armory door. Two other squads moved up behind point squad for fire support. They had no way of knowing if any Covenant soldiers were sitting behind the large, sliding doors in front of them.

"Remember, nothing that goes boom. One little explosion, and this whole entire section of the ship can be blow to hell" Chris warned.

Everyone nodded their heads, showing they understood what he meant. Highcom had expressed they wanted every Covenant weapon UNSC forces could get their hands on. If the humans on Earth were going to go underground they wouldn't be able to produce ammo like they use to, so any additional weapons were required.

As Chris approached, the door slid open with a swoosh. Taking a large breath, Chris stepped into the doorway, his gun sweeping the room. The room was huge. It was ten meters high, but with all of the shelves and crates full of weapons and ammo, it was impossible to get the other dimensions of the room. If he had to guess, Chris would say about fifty meters by fifty meters worth of Covenant weapons.

"What's the situation in there?" Captain Johansson asked over the comm.

"While no contacts in sight, there is no visibility of at least ninety-five percent of the room from the entrance, sir." Chris explained.

"I'm sending in Alpha and Foxtrot companies to assist in the search. Break yourselves up into fireteams and secure the room." the Captain ordered.

"Sir yes sir. Alright ladies, into fireteams. Standard room clearing procedure. You know the signal for identification, so that means no shooting each other. Now get moving" Chris ordered.

The thirty-six men of the three squads, plus the one hundred and ninety men from the two companies split into teams of five and six, and began dispersing amongst the rows of weapons. Chris joined five nervous looking teenagers, most likely eighteen years old.

He lead the teens down the farthest row to the right. Already he could hear cries of surprise filling the air, both human and Covenant tongues. The sound of both plasma based and projectile based weapons filled the air as the human fireteams swept the armory to eliminate all Covenant soldiers that occupied the room.

A black armored Elite ran into Chris's view, several meters in front of the fireteam. The ODST jammed his finger on the trigger and let loose a hail of bullets. They pinged off of the eight foot tall creature's shields. The Elite standing in front of him was one of the highest ranking ones, and its shields would be a hell of a lot harder to take down then a blue armored Elites.

The soldiers, getting over their nervousness, started to shoot their guns. Either they were really nervous, or weren't strong enough to handle the gun's kick because most of their shots were way off.

"Straighten your line of fire!" Chris ordered.

The Elite lifted up its twin plasma rifles and aimed them at the fireteam. Streaks of plasma littered the air and collided with one of the soldiers. The teen cried out in pain, before collapsing to the floor, a huge hole burnt in his chest.

The other four teenagers started to back pedal quickly as the Elite fired plasma at them. Chris staid where he was, though he crouched to steady his aim. Another of the teens was hit with plasma and the remaining three turned tail and ran. Chris was alone with the Elite and his MA9B clicked empty as the Elite brought his rifles to bear on him.

Throwing his useless weapon to the ground, Chris went for the magnum strapped to his thigh. Before he could fully get his pistol out of its strap, the Elite opened fire. Diving to the side, Chris ignored the searing pain in his leg as plasma burnt through his ODST armor. He swung his pistol in front of him and fired the full clip into the Elite's chest, overriding the shield and killing the alien.

Chris pulled himself up and sat against the wall. Three other fireteams had passed him by, the first one stopping to bandage his wound before moving on. It was another thirty minutes before the sounds of battle stopped completely.

"Alright maggots! Start packing this shit up and carrying this shit out! Alpha and Bravo Company, you guys are pulling security. Take the route back to the cargo bay, and then move out to the Delta shuttlebay, which has been confirmed as being in UNSC hands. You should be running into several squads of the 1st Brigade Combat Team of the 10th Mountain Division along the way. Remember, you are in a hostile environment so keep on your toes." Captain Johansson's voice carried all throughout the room.

* * *

**1432 Hours, October 30, 2552 (Military Calender)**

**Outside the Hunter Barracks of the CRS-Class Covenant Carrier- the Preservation of Faith, above the forks of Long Island, United States of America restricted air space, Earth.**

Nathan tried to steady his breathing but it wasn't really working. Why the hell did he have to help kill the Hunters? Couldn't he have gone with the group going after the Grunts or something. It wasn't like the Centaurs were capable of taking out Hunters, especially not when they numbered around several hundred.

Sure the brigade he was with had been given two hundred of the Spankers but that wouldn't destroy all of them, and the remaining Hunters would castrate the brigade with one salvo. Damn himself for being such a kick ass soldier.

"So here's what is going to happen. Our rocket jockeys will all line up. The Centaur will make the doors open, and you guys launch both of your rounds, then the door closes and we move the hell out of the way. Simple as can be, even you idiots can't mess that up" Captain Fletcher growled out, her voice gruff. "Now get your skinny asses in position"

The two hundred men and women carrying rocket launchers lined up in front of the large metal door that lead to where the Hunters bunked. Captain Fletcher motioned for Nathan, and he approached the doors from the side. As soon as he was close enough, they opened with a swoosh. Not even waiting for an order, the jockeys fired their rockets, the second volley seconds after the first.

Before they could even move out of the way, large beams of plasma flashed through the open door, burning a third of the jockeys. Nathan quickly stumbled back from the door, letting it shut. The door started to burn red, and the remaining jockeys, the ones able to move, quickly scrambled out of the way, some dragging wounded with them.

The metal of the door started to melt, dripping onto the floor. Those carrying rockets quickly reloaded their weapons, shoving another tube of ammo into the gun. The door continued to melt before a large hole was burned through the door. The purple metal across from the door was warped and the temperature of the corridor was stifling.

The door tried to open, put it was melted shut and only groaned loudly. Almost six dozen Hunters roared loudly as they charged through the hole in the door. They came into the corridor by twos, their guns glowing threateningly.

Nathan, who was still close to the door, raised his pistol and fired a full clip at the beast. Since none of them were facing him, his shots quickly tore through their soft orange mid-section. Seven Hunters fell to the ground dead, and the rest turned menacingly towards Nathan.

The surviving rocket jockeys launched another two volleys at the Hunters. Nathan pressed himself firmly against the wall, his shield in front of him. The rockets collided, the explosions sending clouds of flame and smoke in every direction. When the smoke cleared, the six dozen Hunters were nothing more then big corpses, with orange blood splattered everywhere.

"Fallback to the rally points!" Captain Fletcher yelled. The remaining rocket jockeys, Nathan and the Captain, split up and went separate ways down the corridors. Nathan came upon an intersection where a good fifty soldiers crouched and waited.

If you took a left at the intersection and went farther down, you'd come upon another position of soldiers, about three hundred on each side. They were set up in case things didn't go well over here, which was very likely.

They had set up two different areas with demo charges. The plan was, entice the Hunters to charge their position and blow the charges on their asses as the lumbering hulks walked by the C4 explosives. Plain and simple. And effective, you couldn't count out effective.

Close to a hundred Hunters lumbered out of the room. The soldiers at both rallying points opened up on the Hunters. Rounds pinged off the Hunters armor, doing nothing more then getting their attention, but that was all that was needed.

Splitting up, the Hunters started to slowly move towards the two Army positions. The fuel rod cannons attached to their arms, glowed a bright green and every soldier quickly scrambled back from their position as torrents of green plasma collided with the walls and floors of the intersections.

Screams of pain littered the air as men and women got third degree burns from the severe heat emitted from the plasma. One of the rocket jockeys jumped from around the corner and fired both his rockets at the Hunters. In a flash of green light all that was left of the jockey's body was its legs. No one was brave enough to see if the rockets hit, but judging by the yells they had to of hit something.

More searing plasma was flying by their position, and everyone continued to back away from the intersection. A small beeping noise started to emit from the back of the group. The sounds of someone fumbling with something reached Nathan's ears.

"The sensors have been tripped. Someone has to make sure, its more then just one Hunter before I blow the charges" a voice said frantically from the back.

Nathan looked around at the terrified soldiers. None of them had ever been in something this big before. Besides the last three or four days, none of them had ever seen combat. It look liked he'd have to be the one.

He approached the corner cautiously and peeked out. He immediately drew his head back and scrambled backwards. Right around the corner was a Hunter, and several meters back was the main pack, sitting right by the charge.

"Blow it!" he shouted.

A loud explosion filled everyone's ears, as a plume of smoke came from around the corner, and one lone Hunter roar filled the air.

"Fall back!" Nathan shouted at the soldiers. "To rally point Echo!"

The massive Hunter came charging around the corner, its weapon hot. Nathan was the closest one to it, and the massive beast aimed its weapon right at him. Raising the glowing red shield on his forearm, Nathan ducked behind the thing and let out a quick prayer.

Searing heat washed over the Centaur as his shield flickered and died. The overwhelming power of the Hunter's weapon had fried the biggest thing that made him a Centaur, without the shield he was just like any other ODST, well except for the fact that his body suit came with thrusters so he could jump higher.

Bullets ping off of the Hunter, but they had no effect on the giant beast, as it stepped forward towards Nathan. The Hunter went to swat Nathan with it shield, but Nathan quickly scrambled backwards out of its reach. As its swing miss, the Soldiers took advantage of the Hunter exposing its orange middle. At least three dozen bullets ripped apart the mass of orange, sending blood everywhere. The Hunter collapsed backwards, a heavy thud echoing throughout the corridor.

Gunfire and roars of pain could be heard in the distance, meaning rally point Zulu was in trouble. "Move out to rally point Zulu. They need some help, so get your asses moving!" Nathan shouted.

* * *

**1411 Hours, October 30, 2552 (Military Calender)**

**Approaching the bridge of the CRS-Class Covenant Carrier- the Preservation of Faith, above the forks of Long Island, United States of America restricted air space, Earth.**

"Ma'am, Task Force Omega has met heavy resistance and are currently held up at intersection fourteen of their path. Task Force Sierra is approaching the bridge now, and are wondering if they should advance by themselves, or if they should wait for one of the other task forces. Task Force Tango was ambushed by several Brute patrols and suffered heavy casualties, and are moving slowly, they are currently at intersection twenty-three of their path. As for us, Task Force Hotel, as you can see we are moving along smoothly and should arrive at our destination in three minutes" Captain Barber looked at the Major expectantly.

"Get some squads from one of the back up brigades to grab the wounded of Task Force Tango and to bring them to the casualty collection point. Once that is done, tell Task Force Tango to quicken their pace. Get three squads from the back up brigades to assist Task Force Omega in clearing their path, make sure they have some heavy weapons in the squads. Tell Task Force Sierra to wait until Task Force Hotel is in position as well, and that I'll give the command when we should attack," the Major ordered. Captain Barber relayed her orders into his radio.

Other then a few Grunt and Elite patrols, they hadn't run into any problems and had a relatively smooth jog down their path. Out of the four different paths leading to the bridge from the cargo bay, the one Task Force Hotel had taken was the longest out of all of them. It ran along the starboard side of the ship before curving back in to the middle.

"Ground side troops are reporting at least a hundred Phantoms dropping off troops several hundred meters away from their perimeter!" the Captain called out.

Major Ivanova nodded her head, showing she had heard the bad news. There was nothing she could do about it and the ground side troops had their orders to hold the lift. If the situation really hit the fan out there, the ground side troops could go up the lift and set up defense inside.

"That's the bridge door in front of us ma'am" Captain Barber exclaimed.

"Everyone get in position. Give the go ahead to Task Force Sierra. Start the assault on the bridge"

Three dozen Soldiers each holding a frag approached the door, which opened with a swoosh. As soon as the door parted, each man lobbed their nade at different power. Farther along the wall to their left, another door was opened and grenades were flying from that door as well.

The grenades didn't go unanswered, as the bridge's defenders opened up, pouring plasma fire into the Soldiers standing in the doorway. They were all cut down quickly, as their grenades exploded in the mass of Covenant.

It seemed most of the Covenant soldiers had been called from their patrols to defend the bridge. After the Drone barracks, the first target to be hit, was destroyed, the commander of the ship probably realized the severity of the situation.

The doors closed again, leaving thirty-six dead U.S. Soldiers. She still had over a thousand-four hundred Soldiers in her task force, so though regrettable, it wasn't that bad of a lost.

"You two, set up that machine gun for some fire support. I want a double line formation of riflemen. One row kneeling, and the other standing behind them. You, with the Defoliant Projector, get in the middle of the first row. Prepare yourselves" Major Ivanova motioned for a twitchy looking teen to approach the door.

As soon as the door was open, the row of riflemen, the bulky looking Soldier with the Defoliant Projector, and the prone heavy machine gunner, all opened fire. A jet of flames shot forward, engulfing several Grunts, as thousands of tracers slammed into the Covenant defenders.

The Covenant responded with burst of plasma, melting the second rate armor of the Army, and burning holes in the Soldiers. A plasma grenade flew through the open doorway, and adhered itself to a man's face. The man screamed loudly, before a realistic Soldier, shoved the man forward so he wouldn't take others down with him when the grenade blew. When the man was engulfed in a bright flash of blue, the blast caught two other Soldiers, chucking them both backwards.

The door opposite of them(Task Force Hotel) and to the right of Task Force Sierra, opened up. A platoon of Soldier rushed from the doorway, rifles blazing. The rest of Task Force Tango appeared in the doorway, taking their shots carefully so as not to hit their comrades.

Although the platoon had been wiped out, they pushed the Covenant farther back into the room. A dozen Elites stood on the raised platform in the middle of the room. Brutes, Jackals, Grunts and Drones littered the back of the room and the trenches that ran along the raised platform.

A stray beam shot hit the flame-thrower wielded by the hulky looking soldier. The beam sliced through the metal of gun, and made the liquid contained within squirt out onto the man wielding it. A bolt of plasma slammed into the flame-thrower wielding man and set the liquid on fire. The fire quickly traveled to the liquids source, the Defoliant Projector and the gun exploded in a fireball. The fire engulfed those closest to the man and half a dozen men and women screamed in agony as the flames burned away their skin.

"Ma'am Armories C and D have both been secured and the contents are being shipped to Delta shuttlebay. The Grunt and Hunter barracks have been wiped out" Captain Barber called out.

"Good. Push forward, get into that room. We need this bridge in our hands! Go! Go! Go! Go!" Major Ivanova clapped several Soldiers on their backs.

Dozens of rifle-bearing humans rushed into the room, their guns spitting out rounds. Lead and plasma was traded between the two sides, fighters for both the UNSC and the Covenant being cut down rapidly.

"The Council Chambers has been taken! A Minor Prophet has been captured and is being escorted to the newly secured Beta shuttlebay. Ground side troops under attack by at least five thousand Covenant. Several phantoms are making their way toward the shuttlebays!"

"You!" the Major pointed at a athletic looking women. "Give me your shotgun!" The women handed over her shotgun quickly. "Captain, I want you to get a couple men and focus your fire on the Elites on that platform, tell the other task force to do the same. No more of this random bullshit. I'm giving you a twenty-second window to pump as much lead into those Elites as you can. As soon as those twenty-seconds are over, I'm going in"

"Are you sure you wouldn't want me to do that ma'am?" Captain Barber asked.

"Positive"

"Flint, Sanchez, Reyes, Carpluk and Pitt load in some new clips and get your asses over here. We're to act as softeners. You got twenty seconds to empty your clips into those Elites. Fire on my mark" Captain Barber growled out. He relayed the orders to the other Task Force leaders and waited until they were all in position. He looked at the Major who nodded her head. "Mark!"

The six Soldiers, plus a bakers dozen more from the other two Task Forces, opened up on the Elites, who already were suffering from being fired on by a couple of other Soldiers. At the end of twenty-seconds seven Elites had been killed and another two had no shields.

Running from her spot, the Major dodged mis-aimed plasma shots before sprinting up the ramp. The lead that had been flying at the Elites from the other two Task Forces immediately stopped in fear of hitting their commanding officer.

Charging up the ramp, Sasha Ivanova ran right for the gold armored Elite. Ignoring the plasma that hit her in her shoulder armor, she closed in on her target. The Elite activated its plasma sword and went to swing it down on the human charging him. However he was blown backwards, as the Major shoved the shotgun right against the things shield and pulled the trigger. Spinning to her left she pumped two buckshots into the chest of a blue Elite.

Behind her, four three round burst into the head, put down the Elite that was going to club the Major from behind. Captain Barber kept his gun trained on the remaining two Elites. He fired some burst into the one farthest from the Major, but the Elite quickly moved toward the only human on the platform and the Captain stopped his fire.

Rolling out of the way of more plasma fire, the Major came onto her feet only to see a hail of bullets slam into both of the Elites. It wasn't long before both their shields were depleted and the two tall creatures were ripped to shreds.

Looking up she could see three Privates on the platform next to her. They were aiming their rifles down upon the Covenant below. Nodding at them quickly, not them any of them saw it, she looked at the holographic controls around her.

She saw something that looked like it was what she was looking for. Grabbing the data crystal chip that sat in one of her pouches, she cautiously pressed the chip into a open slot. The thing surprisingly held in place in the holographic controls, and soon the image of Tecumseh came into view.

"Raising shields on all shuttlebays." Tecumseh said as soon as he came into view. "Two Phantoms made it through, both at Delta Shuttlebay. Drone, Jackal and Brute barracks are being cleaned up now. The last two armories have just been secured. I recommend sending a squad to the two brigs on this level. I'm reading sixteen UNSC neural implants, eight in each brig."

The Major looked over where the last few Covenant were being wiped out now. Hundreds of UNSC and Covenant bodies littered the floor.

"Right, Captain Barber get a squad and send them to the brigs. Tecumseh will guide you. Captain Dunn, gather the wounded and bring them to the casualty collection point." After she was done calling out her orders, the Major turned back to the A.I. "Tecumseh, where can I plug this data recorder in?"

A part of the hologram lit up. Walking over to it, Ivanova plugged in the recorder. Making sure it was in properly she turned back to the A.I.

"Transfer everything the Covenant have stored in their databases" she ordered.

"Already started ma'am" the A.I. ordered.

"Can you relay a message to the ground side forces to get them to come up the grav lift?"

"Of course ma'am, this ship has excellent communication systems"

"Good, get to it. Once all UNSC forces are up the lift, deactivate it. Call in the transports to start carrying troops and supplies out of here." The major turned away from the A.I. and looked around satisfied. Mission successful.

* * *

**1411 Hours, October 30, 2552 (Military Calender)**

**Stern starboard shuttlebay of the CRS-Class Covenant Carrier- the Preservation of Faith, above the forks of Long Island, United States of America restricted air space, Earth.**

"The last Albatross is loading up now ma'am" Tecumseh said.

"Once it leaves, I want you to scan the ship again for any UNSc neural implants." The Major waited patiently for her command to be followed.

"Besides you, the Pelican's crew and the eight Marines sitting in the back of the Pelican, no other UNSC forces are left on the ship" Tecumseh responded.

"Started the self-destruction sequence then" Ivanova commanded.

"Overriding Covenant firewalls... Done! Ship set to self destruct in twenty minutes!" Tecumseh replied.

Sasha quickly took the data crystal chip out of the control panel in front of her and hopped into the awaiting Pelican. The transport zoomed out of the shuttlebay, bolts of plasma skimming by it. The Longswords and Skyhawks that had been handling every Covenant Phantom, Banshee and Seraph that had tried landing in the only shuttlebay without its shield up, quickly formed a perimeter around the Pelican.

With its opposition gone, the Covenant transports began to fly into the shuttlebay, dispatching its troops.

Nineteen minutes later, and a loud explosion rumbled the aviation vehicles as they flew over the border of Nassau and Suffolk. While the forks of Long Island no longer existed, neither did a Covenant carrier and almost nine thousand Covenant troops.

* * *

**THE END**

Sequel to come out in a week or two. Look for a story called **Operation Arcani. **


End file.
